
I MOBBOm 

H HI 




MESMERISM 



ITS OPPONENTS: 



A NARRATIVE OF CASES. 



\7 ■ 
GEOKGE SANDBY, JUN. M.A. 

VICAR OF FLIXTON, SUFFOLK. 



" All things are marked and stamped with this triple character ; — of 
the power of God, — the difference of nature, — and the use of man" 

Bacon, Advancement of Learning, book ii. 



V 



% 



LONDON: 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW. 

1844. 






\ 



ft** 



London : 
Printed by A. Spottiswoode, 
New- Street- Square. 



TO 

CAPTAIN JOHN JAMES, 

ETC. ETC. ETC. 

I cannot dedicate this little Work more 
appropriately than to you, through whom I 
became first acquainted with the great 
truths of which it treats, and to whose 
kindness and cordial sympathy I am so 
deeply indebted. 

Believe me to remain, 
My dear Friend, 

Yours most sincerely, 

GEOKGE SANDBY, Jun. 

March, 1844. 

A 2 



PREFACE. 



The following pages have grown out of a 
little pamphlet, that was published last sum- 
mer, called " Mesmerism, the Gift of God." 

The favourable reception of that letter by 
the public, and the demand for a second im- 
pression, have induced the Author, at the 
suggestion of several friends, to enter more 
fully into the subject, and to meet the va- 
rious and contradictory objections that are 
popularly advanced. 

This work, therefore, professes, not only 
to treat of the religious scruples that have 
been raised in the minds of some Christians, 
but to discuss with the philosopher the pre- 
vious question as to the truth of Mesmerism, 
for a due inquiry into which, circumstances 
have greatly favoured the writer. 

The First Chapter is little more than a 
reprint of the original pamphlet, in answer 
to the charge of Satanic agency. 

The Second Chapter enters more at large 
into the same topic ; and showing the ten- 



VI PREFACE. 

dency of the human mind to see the mys- 
terious in the inexplicable, proves, by ex- 
ample, the periodical re-appearance of this 
absurd accusation. The Author also ex- 
amines the unfortunate mistake, which too 
many of his own profession are disposed to 
commit, be their religious creed what it 
may, of thinking that they do God service 
by depreciating his gifts ; because the parties 
that employ them, hold opposite tenets to 
their own. — This feeling is shown to arise, 
sometimes from a zeal without knowledge, 
and often from that love of spiritual power, 
which has disfigured the brightest pages in 
the history of the Church. 

The Third and Fourth Chapters contain 
an analysis of the common objections against 
the truth of Mesmerism. Some remarkable 
cases are adduced from the writer's own 
experience. An accumulation of other facts 
is given from the testimony of parties whose 
standing in society is a pledge for the cor- 
rectness of what they state. The curative 
power of Mesmerism in disease is proved by 
induction and observation. And the medical 
profession is invited to a reconsideration of 
their unfavourable verdict. 



PREFACE. yii 

The Fifth Chapter discusses a common 

opinion as to the dangers of Mesmerism ; 

and its fallacy is in great measure exposed. 

At the request of a friend, the Sixth 
Chapter has examined, at some length, the 
bearing of the wonders of Mesmerism on 
the miracles of the New Testament. It is 
notorious, that a feeling is gaining ground 
that these several facts exhibit an equality 
of power; and that the divine nature of the 
one is impaired by the extraordinary cha- 
racter of the other. The consideration of 
this part of the subject necessarily led to a 
detailed analysis of the Scriptural events : 
of course, the unbeliever in the phenomena 
will deem such an inquiry preposterous and 
laughable ; the Christian, however, who knows 
that Mesmerism is an existing fact in nature, 
will not regard the examination as super- 
fluous ; and even to the philosopher such an 
investigation ought to be interesting. 

The concluding Chapter compares the 
phenomena of natural somnambulism and of 
Mesmerism with certain modern miracles 
among the Wesleyans and the Roman Catho- 
lics. The latter facts are stripped of tha 
marvellous by a narrative of what occurred 



Vlll PKEFACE. 

in the house of a friend. Particular allusion 
is made to those wonders in the Tyrol, with 
the account of which the Earl of Shrews- 
bury, in a recent letter addressed to Mr, 
Ambrose Phillips, perplexed and pleased the 
Protestant or Eomish Churches. 

In the Appendix are given a few facts, 
taken from the history of several natural 
sleepwalkers, by which it will be seen that 
the " miracles of Mesmerism" are nothing 
else than certain phenomena, which have 
been often developed by nature, in the spon- 
taneous action of disease. 

No inquiry is made into the practical 
part of the subject, or into the system of 
treatment that is adopted with a patient.] 
For information under that head, the reader| 
is referred to Deleuze and Teste. 

The Author cannot conclude without ac- 
knowledging the vast obligations that hel 
owes to the " Isis Revelata" of Mr. Col- 
quhoun, and to " Facts in Mesmerism" b) 
the Rev. Chauncy H. Townshend. Those 
who are disposed to follow up the subject,! 
cannot but turn with profit to the variec 
information that those able works afford. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Progress of Mesmerism. — Opposition to Mesmerism. — 
Charge of Satanic Agency. — Sermon preached at Liver- 
pool, — Rev. Hugh M'Neile, — Examination of Sermon. 

— Mesmerism and Electricity. — Mesmerism not super- 
natural. — Why general Laws of Mesmerism not stated, 
— Why Mesmeric Phenomena not uniform in all Patients^ 

— Sermon unworthy of Mr. M'Neile's Reputation. 

CHAP. IL 

Mesmeric Agent invisible. — Gravitation. — Anecdote from 
West Indies. — Xew System of Remedies marvellous. — 
Power of Clergy and spiritual Tyranny. — Witchcraft. — - 
Bark introduced by Jesuits. — Inoculation. — Vaccina- 
tion. — Sin of arraigning God's Bounties. — What Scrip- 
ture Doctrine of Evil Spirits. — Charge brought against 
Mesmerisers. — Lines " On hearing Mesmerism called 
1 impious.' " 

CHAP. III. 

L'nbelievers in Mesmerism. — Author's own Experience. — - 

— Remarkable Cases. — Mesmerisers in England. — Cures 
and Operations in England. — Progress in Scotland — 
in Germany — in France — in United States. — Mes- 
merism proved to be a powerful Remedy in Pain and 
Disease. 

a 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. IV. 



Arguments against Truth of Mesmerism. — Monotony. 
Hysteria. — Imitation. — Faith. — Imagination. — " Mes- 
merise me, and I will believe you." — First French Re- 
port. — Second French Eeport of Medical Men alone. - 
Mr. Wakley. — London University. — British Associa- 
tion and Mr. Braid. — Royal Medical and Chirurgical 
Society. — Great Names among Believers in Mesmerism. 

CHAP. V. 

Dangers of Mesmerism, Physical and Moral. — " Horror ' 
of Mesmerism, — Difficulties of Mesmerism. — Hint for 
younger Members of the Faculty. 

CHAP. VI. 

Mesmeric Cures and Miracles of New Testament. — Compa- 
rison between them. — Fears of the Christian groundless. 

— Touch of the Mesmeriser. — Clairvoyance not mira- 
culous. 

CHAP. VII. 

Marvels and lying Wonders. — Explanation of fancied 
Miracles. — Ecstatic Dreamers and Prophetesses. — Mo- 
dern Miracles among Wesleyans and Roman Catholics 
tested by what occured in a Friend's House. — Lord 
Shrewsbury and the Tyrols. — " Transfer of Thought." 

— Mesmeric Action contagious. — Conclusion. 



MESMERISM 



ITS OPPONENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PROGRESS OF MESMERISM. — OPPOSITION TO MESMERISM. 

CHARGE OF SATANIC AGENCY. SERMON PREACHED AT 

LIVERPOOL. REV. HUGH M'NEILE. EXAMINATION OF 

SERMON, MESMERISM AND ELECTRICITY. MESMERISM 

NOT SUPERNATURAL. WHY GENERAL LAWS OF MESMERISM 

NOT STATED. WHY MESMERIC PHENOMENA NOT UNIFORM 

IN ALL PATIENTS. — SERMON UNWORTHY OF MR. M'NEILE'S 
REPUTATION. 

1 he decided advance that Mesmerism has made 
in this country within the last two years, — the 
number of cautious and practical men that main- 
ain its reality and utility, — the variety of dis- 
eases to which it has been successfully applied, — 
ill lead the friends of truth to hope, that the 
public mind has taken a turn on the subject. In 
spite of the discredit, under which it is often 



2 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

compelled to labour, through the vanity or ig- 
norance of itinerant lecturers, the good cause is 
making a steady and certain progress. For it is 
not by public exhibitions at a theatre, that 
delicate experiments on the human frame can be 
conducted in due compliance with the conditions, 
which are essential to their success. Those con- 
ditions can only be fully appreciated by men, 
that are accustomed to the niceties, which the 
demonstration of the simplest phenomena in che- 
mistry and electricity requires. The failures, 
therefore, that arise from the disturbing influences 
of a crowded audience on the nervous system of 
the patient, — the disgust occasioned by the dis- 
putes between the lecturer and the spectators, — 
the suspicion, and perhaps occasionally the de- 
tection of imposture, are constantly checking, in 
different quarters, that tide of public opinion that 
is gradually rising in favour of this science. 

Still, in defiance of these drawbacks, it keeps 
advancing. Men almost universally begin to 
think that " there is something in it? and on 
further investigation they find that that small 
"something" is a very powerful reality. No 
one, not even those who make inquiries on the 
subject, are aware of the great extent to which 
the practice of Mesmerism is carried on, quietly 
and unobtrusively, in private families. Having 
corresponded much on the subject, I have been 
astonished at finding the numbers who apply to it 



MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 3 

for relief. Men's minds are evidently ripening 
for its reception. They have clearly reached 
that state, in which an impression can be made. 
Till that state has, to a certain degree, arrived, it 
matters not what may be the subject-matter, no 
new truth can be successfully established. Be it 
in religion, or politics, or natural philosophy, or 
medicine, all the books and arguments in its 
favour fall unheeded on the public, till its facts 
and statements have been for some time well 
shaken together in men's minds, and other and 
external circumstances predisposed them towards 
its acceptance. No undue exertions can force 
this period forward, or bring it prematurely into 
being. Prejudice, ignorance, bad education, and 
self-interest will have their triumph and their 
day. But when once the signs of vitality have 
shown themselves, we may accelerate the growth. 
We may then hasten the progress very materially. 
It is my conviction that Mesmerism has at length 
reached this critical point ; — that it has obtained a 
considerable lodgment among reasoning people ; — 
and that from opportunities with which I have 
been eminently favoured, it is in my power to 
promote its establishment very essentially. It is 
then, the purpose of this work to combat those 
arguments, which are most generally advanced 
against Mesmerism, — to strip the subject of those 
marvels with which popular ignorance has sur- 
B 2 



4 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

rounded it, and to show that animal magnetism 
is nothing else than the employment of a common 
and simple agent, which the Supreme Intelligence 
has provided in mercy for his creatures, and of 
which nothing but prejudice or superstition can 
decline to make use. 

I shall begin with that view of the question to 
which accidental circumstances more strongly, in 
the first instance, directed my attention, — I mean 
the opinion, that Mesmerism is a mysterious and 
unholy power, from the exercise of which good 
men and Christians ought to keep aloof. It is 
needful to make our commencement hence : for 
the class of readers to whom I more particularly 
address myself, must be first assured that the 
practice is neither presumptuous nor sinful, before 
we can expect them to study its phenomena, or 
be witnesses of its effect as a sanative process. 

The opinion, then, of the irreligious character 
of this science has been mainly promoted by a 
sermon, that appeared in one of the numbers of 
the Penny Pulpit, and has been actively circulated 
through the country, entitled " Satanic Agency 
and Mesmerism," and which is alleged to have 
been preached in Liverpool by the Rev. Hugh 
M'Neile. 

This sermon, however, was not published with 
the sanction of the preacher, and so far he is not 
responsible : but inasmuch as its sale is a matter 
of notoriety in the town wherein he resides ; — and 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 5 

as- no steps have been taken by him for a dis- 
avowal of its contents, though an opening for 
that very purpose was good-naturedly afforded him; 
— and as the short-hand writer, from whose notes 
the sermon was printed, is ready, we are in- 
formed, to make affidavit of the accuracy of his 
report, — it may fairly be inferred, how incredible 
soever it may sound, that this sermon, with per- 
haps some little variation of language, was ac- 
tually preached by Mr. M'Neile. 

Now a sermon put forth; even in this unau- 
thorised manner, with the prestige of so popular a 
name, certainly deserves every respectful con- 
sideration. The number, moreover, of Mr. 
M'Neile's admirers, and the zeal* with which 
they distribute this publication among the 
thoughtful and the religious, give additional im- 
portance to its pages ; — and it having come to my 
own knowledge, that several parties had been 
prevented from adopting or witnessing the cu- 
rative effects of Mesmerism, through scruples of 
conscience raised by this very discourse, I was 



* My readers may judge of the activity with which anti- 
mesmerists and their emissaries circulate this sermon, when they 
learn that some thousand copies have been sold, and a reprint 
called for. It was sent, for instance, to my own house by some 
anonymous neighbours, with the intention, it is presumed, of de- 
terring us in our course at the very moment we were receiving 
the most providential benefit; and it was in answer to this well- 
meant impertinence, and to the weak or wicked nonsense that 
was elsewhere muttered about a minister of the gospel permitting 
diabolical practices under his roof, that I was originally induced, 
somewhat in self-defence, to take up the subject. 

B 3 



6 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

prepared to bestow upon it a much more careful 
perusal than intrinsically it requires. 

Believing, them as I do most firmly, that Mes- 
merism is a mighty remedial agent, mercifully 
vouchsafed by the beneficent Creator for the miti- 
gation of human misery — a remedy to be em- 
ployed, like every other remedy, prayerfully, 
thankfully, and with a humble dependence on the 
will of Him who sent the chastisement, and can 
alone remove it, — having daily reason, too, to 
bless God for the introduction of this very re- 
medy within the circle of my own family, it is 
difficult for me to express the amazement, the 
regret, the feelings akin to something like shame, 
with which I first read this most deplorable pub- 
lication. And knowing the delusion under which 
so many labour on this question — a delusion 
which the unfortunate language of this sermon 
has tended so greatly to strengthen amongst the 
ignorant and the superstitious, I feel it to be 
nothing short of a sacred Christian duty laid 
upon me to use my endeavours to lessen the 
error. And if these pages should be the means 
of removing the prejudices of but one family, or 
of alleviating the pains of but one afflicted suf- 
ferer, through his adoption of Mesmeric aid, the 
knowledge of it would give me a gratification 
which I would not exchange for many of the 
most coveted distinctions of eloquence and power. 

To much, however, of the earlier passages of 
this sermon no Scriptural reader can offer any 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 7 

objection. Where it presents from the Bible a 
digest of the evidence for Satanic agency, and of 
the condition of the fallen angels, and of their 
power over the race of man ; where their fearful 
spiritual influence on our depraved nature and 
deceitful hearts is laid bare in all its deformity ; 
to all this the well -instructed Christian tremblingly 
subscribes. When, therefore, Mr. M'Neile is 
alleged to state, "not only that there did exist 
such a thing as Satanic agency, but that it con- 
tinued to exist after the incarnation of Christ; 
that it continued to exist amongst men after the 
resurrection of Christ ; that it is predicted to 
exist until the second coming of Christ ; " to all 
these and similar positions I am not prepared to 
express any dissent. But when, from these pre-* 
mises, he goes on to assert that certain peculiar 
facts, recorded in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, 
and of the reality of which he does not appear to 
doubt, are, "beyond all question, beyond the 
course of nature," or, in other words, supernatural 
and the result of some miraculous or diabolical 
agency, what thinking mind does not see that 
such a conclusion is most illogical and absurd? 
Is there no other alternative ? Is nothing else 
possible ? Is nothing else probable ? Before so 
strong and momentous a decision were thus 
peremptorily pronounced, should not a fair and 
candid man at least stoop to inquire, to investi- 
gate, to consider calmly, whether some better 
B 4 



8 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

explanation were not admissible? Should a lover 
of truth — should a friend to whatever might 
alleviate suffering humanity, thus hastily, and, 
ex cathedra, deliver an adverse opinion upon a 
science which, to say the least, is at present only 
in its infancy ? If we cannot admire the reason- 
ing faculty that this sermon evinces, can we, on 
the other hand, praise its charity ? " In forming 
a judgment of this," says Mr. M'Neile, "I go, of 
course, on what I have read. / have seen nothing 
of it, nor do I think it right to tempt God by 
going to see it. I have not faith to go in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, and to command the 
Devil to depart." Really, any one would suppose 
that he were reading the ignorant ebullition of 
some dark monk in the middle ages, rather than 
the sentiments of an educated Protestant of the 
nineteenth century. What is this but a revival 
of the same spirit that called forth a papal ana- 
thema against the "starry" Galileo? What, 
but an imitation of the same objections which 
pronounced the doctrine of Antipodes as incom- 
patible with the faith, and maintained that the 
theory of Columbus threw discredit on the Bible ? 
Verily, the University of Salamanca, which op- 
posed the dogged resistance of theological objec- 
tions to the obscure Genoese, and the Inquisition 
at Rome, that condemned the philosopher of Pisa, 
might claim a kindred associate in the minister of 
St. Jude's ! For, according to Mr. M'Neile, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 9 

Mesmerism must be " nothing but human fraud 
for gain sake/' or something " beyond the power 
of unassisted man to accomplish." Is my brother- 
divine, then, so intimately versed in all the mighty 
secrets of Nature ? Has he so thoroughly 
fathomed her vast and various recesses, that he 
ventures to pronounce everything that may be 
contrary to, or beyond his own knowledge and 
experience, as the invention of evil spirits, or the 
contrivance of evil men ? Is there nothing new to 
be discovered ? Are the regions of light and life 
exhausted and laid bare ? Have we at last reached 
the ultima Thule of art and science ? " It is not 
in nature for any one to bear to be so treated," says 
Mr. M'Neile, authoritatively ; introducing at the 
same time and in the midst of the same sentence 
this evasive and contradictory exception, " so far 
as we have yet learned" And having previously 
assumed the sinfulness of Mesmerism, and rather 
regretted that he had not " the faith to bid the 
Devil to depart," he again goes on, and says 
" there may he some power in nature .... some 
secret operation .... some latent power in nature, 
which is now being discovered .... something like 
the power of compressed steam .... or like elec- 
tricity." Why, this is the very point in question. 
This is the very subject of the controversy. This 
is the very fact which the large and increasing 
body of believers in Mesmerism confidently assert. 
And " if there may be such a power in nature," 



10 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

why does he prematurely denounce it as diabolical, 
and the act of Satan, before the truth has been 
fairly and fully established ? Why not wait, and 
examine, and patiently and prayerfully study the 
statements, the experiments, and the results that 
present themselves, and with a serious thinking 
spirit revolve the evidence of the whole matter, 
and say whether perchance it may not be " the 
gift of God" (Eccl. iii. 13.). " Be not rash with 
thy mouth (says the royal preacher), and let not 
thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before 
God ; for God is in heaven and thou upon earth ; 
therefore let thy words be few" (Eccl. v. 2.). 
Surely it were the part of a wise and sober 
Christian, who remembereth that " nothing is 
impossible with God," to weigh a great and 
curious question like this in a humble posture of 
mind, and not rashly to pronounce of his fellow- 
men, who, for their faith and their attainments in 
grace, may, for aught he knows, be as acceptable 
with the Saviour as himself, that they are agents 
and instruments of the evil one ! Washington 
Irving* tells us, that when Petro Gonzales de 
Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Car- 
dinal of Spain, became first acquainted with the 
views of Columbus, he feared that they were 
tainted with heterodoxy, and incompatible with 
the form of earth described in sacred Scripture. 

* Life of Columbus, vol. i. book 2. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 11 

But we read; that " farther explanations had their 
force," and "he perceived that there could be 
nothing irreligious in attempting to extend the 
bounds of human knowledge, and to ascertain the 
works of creation ; " and the great cardinal there- 
fore gave the obscure navigator a u courteous and 
attentive hearing." Even Mr. M'Neile, with all 
his Scriptural attainments, might find a wholesome 
lesson for instruction in the example of this great 
Roman Catholic prelate, when listening to the 
novel theories of the unknown Columbus. For, 
with one breath to say, that there may " be such 
a power in nature," and with another to describe 
men, who simply make use of that power, as those 
who deal with " familiar spirits," does appear the 
most monstrous instance of inconsistent condem- 
nation we ever met with : it is a begging the 
whole question with a vengeance ; it is a summary 
judgment without appeal ; it is a decision affecting 
papal infallibility. And yet this competent jury- 
man says, " I have seen nothing of it 3 nor do I 
think it right to tempt God by going to see it." 

After certain criticising observations, however, 
as to the scientific character of some Mesmeric 
proceedings, on which we will speak presently, 
he refers to the well-known "magnetic experi- 
ment " of the operation for a cancer in France, 
which a lady underwent without feeling any pain 
in its progress, and mentions it as " recorded in a 
report made by the Committee of the Royal 



12 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Academy at Paris." And so determined is he to 
discover the evil spirit at work in the business, 
that he says — "If this be a falsehood, there is 
something almost supernatural in the fact, that 
we have a whole academy joining to tell the public 
this lie. If it be a truth, if the fact be so, then 
here, beyond all question, is something out of the 
range of nature — out of the present power of man, 
unless this is a new science." In this age of dis- 
coveries and marvels, surely a thinking mind need 
not deem it so very incredible, that some large 
addition to scientific knowledge, or even a " new 
science," as he calls it, should be brought to light. 
We have of late seen so many of the wonders of 
God's providence made manifest to our view - 
wonders, of whose existence our forefathers had 
not the shadow of a suspicion, that the Christian, 
while he contemplates them all with thankfulness 
and awe, might rather be expected to adopt the 
apostolic language, and say, " we know but in 
part? and we " see but through a glass darkly? 
" Lo ! " (said the patient Job, while he was ac- 
knowledging the power of God to be infinite and 
unsearchable) — "lo, these are parts of his ways ; 
but how little a portion is heard of him ? but the 
thunder of his power who can understand?" 
(xxvi. 14.) But, says Mr. M'Neile, on the con- 
trary, " we know what sleep is, and we know what 
pain is ! " Does he, indeed, " know " what sleep 
is ! Is he so accurate a physiologist that he is 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 13 

acquainted with all its varieties *, its appearances, 
its modifications and actions, according to the 
changes and conditions of the human frame ? 
Does he too " know " what pain is ? Is he so 
deeply read in pathology that he is prepared to 



* Does Mr. M'Neile, for instance, who so well " knows what 

sleep is," know and understand the nature of somnambulism? 

Can he explain its peculiarities or its causes ? Yet this is sleep 

under one of its variations ; — but how strange, and with what 

ingular diversity of effect ! Still it is not so uncommon but that 

most persons, at some period of their lives, have known an ex- 

mple or two of it amongst their neighbours ; and we constantly 

meet with a paragraph in a newspaper, headed " Somnambulism" 

giving a tale of wonder for the curious. As Mr. Townshend 

iays in his " Facts," " there are many who remember to have 

beard tell of some sleep-walker, who has been known to rise from 

lis bed, and to display in slumber even more than his ordinary ac- 

ivity, balancing himself where the waking eye would sicken. Who 

3oes not believe in the existence of such a state ? Doctors have 

lescanted upon it with the precision of medical lore ; metaphy- 

dcians have examined it as a curious feature of humanity ; and 

he light and gay, regarding it as a mere matter of amusement, 

va.se, nocked to see its mimicry in dramatic representation, en- 

lanced by all the charms of music, and the fascinations of genius." 

p. 190.) Now, can Mr. M'Neile explain this state of natural 

somnambulism? Can he doubt its occasional existence? Has 

le studied its very singular phenomena ? And if he have studied 

hem, will he deny that they bear a close, nay, the very closest 

esemblance to the phenomena of Mesmerism, — so much so, that 

hey appear to arise from the same state of the human or- 

anism, — with this difference, that the former arises spontane- 

us]y, and that the latter is produced artificially by the magnetic 

rocess ? 

The reader is referred to that most philosophical, yet strictly 
ractical work, the " Isis Revelata" of Mr. Colquhoun. The 
tudent, who wishes to investigate this very peculiar state, should 
so consult the " Traite du Somnambulisme et des differentes 
Modifications qu'il presente," par A. Bertrand, Docteur de la 
"aculte de Medecine de Paris ; — a curious work, full of singular 
nd well-authenticated facts. See also the " Instruction Pratique" 
f Deleuze, cap. 5. ; and see also an account of a very striking 
e in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," art. Sleep- Walker. 



14 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

state unerringly its effect upon the body of man 
under every possible contingency ? Why, he 
himself says — "We do not know all the properties 
of matter certainly, and there may be some occult 
property in matter which these men have dis- 
covered, and which may have the effect, when 
applied to the human frame, of rendering it insen- 
sible to pain." Again, I say, this is the point at 
issue. Why may there not be such an " occult 
property in matter," the beneficent u gift of God " 
for the use of his creature man, without calling 
up a diabolical machinery to explain the difficulty ? 
In an admonition that he gives to the medical 
profession, he quotes Shakspeare, and begs re- 
spectfully to suggest to them, that there are " more 
things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in 
their philosophy." They might, with a beautiful 
propriety, fling back upon him his own quotation 
and request him to apply it to this very question 
A Christian minister, however, would rather go 
to the inspired Volume, and say — " Who is this 
that darkeneth counsel by words without knoiv 
ledge. Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I 
will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where 
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth ? Declare, if thou hast understanding. . . 
Have the gates of death been opened unto thee : 
or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow oi 
death ? Hast thou perceived the breadth of tht 
earth ? Declare, if thou knowest it all. Where 



MESMEEISM AXD ITS OPPOXEXTS. 15 

is the way where light dwelleth ? — and as for 
darkness, where is the place thereof? That thou 
shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that 
thou shouldest know the paths to the house there- 
of?" (Job, xxxviii. 3. &c.) The Almighty 
Father, whose judgments are unsearchable, and 
whose ways past finding out, hath hidden from 
the curious eyes of man the reasons and explana- 
tions of many of his gifts, and left us to grope 
ignorantly in the dark upon subjects the most 
familiar, and which are for ever present around 
us. But is this outside and superficial acquaint- 
ance with the works of nature to shut out from 
our remembrance the ever-present agency of the 
hand of God ? To condemn Mesmerism as an 
abomination of the devil, because little or nothing 
is yet known respecting it, is a line of argument, 
which, if pressed to its absurd conclusion, would 
ascribe half the wonders of creation to the care 
and contrivance of the spirit of evil. THiat, for 
instance, is our life — the bodily life of man ? In 
what does it consist ? What is its immediate and 
secondary cause ? What produces it — what ter- 
minates it — what gives it vitality and continu- 
ance ? I believe that the best physiologists are 
not prepared with any positive opinion on the 
matter. Some consider (and with great show of 
probability) Electricity to be analogous to the 
principle of life. Some consider Electricity to 
be the principle of life. TTe are aware that all 



16 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

nature abounds with electric matter — it is here 
and everywhere ; perchance, under God, in it we 
" live and move and have our being." We hear 
of Galvanism and Magnetic-electricity, or Elec- 
tro-magnetism, and its efficacy, through machines, 
upon the human body, in relieving paralysis, and 
rheumatism, and different neuralgic disorders. 
Why might not Mesmerism, or Animal-magne- 
tism, as it would appear to be appropriately called, 
be Electricity under a different character ? * Its 



* In our present imperfect knowledge of Mesmerism, and 
before its facts are generally admitted, it may be premature to 
adopt a theory : still I cannot help expressing an opinion that 
electricity, under some modification or other, is the immediate 
agent to which the Mesmeric action must be referred. The Ger- 
mans are so satisfied of this fact, that they have given to Mesmerism 
the new and appropriate name of " Electro- Physiology. H Kant, 
it is well known, in one of his earlier works, gave it as his 
opinion, that the causes of common magnetism, of electricity, oi 
galvanism, of heat, &c., were all the product of one common 
principle, differently modified. To these, of course, might now 
be added the immediate cause of Mesmerism. And thus we 
should have one simple and single principle uniting animated and 
inanimate nature in one common and connected operation, a 
communi vinculo. There are several facts which show this strong 
analogy between Electricity and Mesmerism. Here is one : th 
electric fluid escapes most readily from a point. Dr. Lardner, in 
his treatise, introduces several illustrations to prove this fact. He 
says, " the increase of electrical density at the angular edge of i 
conductor produces still more augmented effects at its corners : 
.... this effect is still further increased if any part of a con 
ductor have the form of a point." (Lardner's " Cabinet Cyc. 
Electricity, p. 329.) Now all mesmerisers have found by ex perl 
ence that the Mesmeric medium is most powerfully conducted bj 
the tips of the fingers, analogously to Lardner's illustrations. Ir 
regard to the resemblance between animal magnetism and minera 
magnetism, I have seen, over and over again, the hand and hea( 
of the sleeper following the hand of the mesmeriser, in the sam< 
way as the needle follows the loadstone. This subject is treatec 
most ably in the Rev. Chauncy Townshend's admirable work 

ft . 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 17 

results are often the same, or rather very similar. 
Why might not the electric fluid of the operator 
unite itself under various modifications with the 
electric fluid of the patient, and thus act with a 
curative influence upon the principle of life within 
us ? It is Mr. M^Neile himself, who in this very 
sermon has referred to Electricity, and to the 
shock of the Galvanic battery; and I would, 
therefore, just remind him, that in the study of 
this very subject there is yet much darkness ; that 
there is yet much to learn ; that we do not yet 
know how far its action is connected with the 
principle of life — and certainly we would defy 
him to prove that Mesmerism or Animal-magnet- 
ism is not an essential portion of the system. 

And this brings us to Mr. M'Neile's main ar- 
gument, upon which he appears to plume himself 
most confidently, for he repeats it over and over 
again under various phases : — "I would wish 
(says he) that the professors of this science should 
state the laws of nature by the uniform action of 
which this thing is done Let them put for- 
ward the elements of the science in a scientific 

manner It belongs to philosophers, who are 

honest men, and who make any discovery of this 

kind, to state the uniform action We hear of 

these experiments — but hear nothing of a scien- 

" Facts in Mesmerism," in the chapter on the Mesmeric medium. 
See also Colquhoun's " Isis Revelata." See also a clever letter 
in No. li. p. 169. of "The People's Phrenological Journal," by 
Mr. F. S. Merryweather. 

C 



18 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

tific statement of the laws Let us have the 

laws of the science I consider that no Christian 

person ought to go near any of these meetings, 
or hear any of these lectures, until a statement 
shall be made, grounded on a scientific assertion 
of the laws by which this thing is said to act." 
And so on passim to the end of the sermon. 

Now this argument, perseveringly as it is re- 
peated, may be disposed of very easily. 

First, in regard to his demand, that " the laws 
of this science be stated " clearly and " in a sci- 
entific manner." To this there can be no objection. 
This is a just and legitimate challenge. Nay, we 
would say in his own words, " Science is open 
and above-board to all who will examine it — it 
courts examination; let us not listen to it, so 
long as they keep it secret, and hide the nature 
of it." True, most true. But who keeps it a 
secret ? Who hides the nature of it ? The be- 
lievers in Mesmerism are earnestly solicitous that 
the most open, public, free, and full examination 
of the subject and its details should be constantly 
taking place. They invite its enemies and im- 
pugners to be present. They call upon the most 
prejudiced and the most partial to come with their 
prejudices and partialities, and witness facts. All 
they require, on the other hand, is an honest and 
candid conclusion out of an "honest and good 
heart." But are Mesmerists to be blamed for not 
stating the laws and principles of this system, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 19 

when they do not know them themselves ? Does 
Mr. M'Neile remember, that Mesmerism is yet 
but in its cradle ? That, practically, it has been 
but little known except within a few short years ? 
In saying this, we are of course aware, that those 
who have looked farthest into the question, main- 
tain that for centuries back, the Egyptians, and, 
perhaps the Chinese, have been acquainted with 
it ; and that, at intervals, it has been always more 
or less known. To me the great wonder is, that 
an art within the reach of everybody, should have 
remained so long a secret ; however, the fact is, 
that publicly and philosophically the system has 
only been recently studied. At this very moment, 
numbers of cautious observant men are noting 
down facts as they arise, with a view to a safe 
and surer conclusion. On the great Baconian 
system of induction, they are recording the ex- 
periments, the variations, the modifications, as 
they present themselves ; and when these shall be 
well established, they will come to the theory. 
Would Mr. M'Neile have the theory first declared, 
and the facts collected afterwards to prove it. 
This might be convenient, but hardly philo- 
sophical. Our opponent must be content to wait 
patiently a few years, before his demand of having 
the general laws of the science scientifically stated, 
can be properly complied with. Mesmerism is 
yet in its infancy. We cannot yet state "how a 
c 2 



20 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

pass of the thumb *, or a movement of the fingers, 
acts on human flesh" — we cannot yet state "how 
it stops the circulation of the blood so as to resist 
the strengthfulness of the human frame" — we 
cannot yet state "how it prevents the delicate 
touch being felt in the cutaneous veins." But 
because we cannot yet give a scientific statement 
of the matter, are we to forbear its use as a re- 
medial agent, or to ascribe these unknown pro- 
perties to the " devices of the devil?" In the 
cognate or analogous science of mineral magnetism, 
the peculiar cause of union between magnetic 
pyrites and iron had been for years altogether 
inexplicable — and perhaps, with all our know- 
ledge of electricity, is not even yet satisfactorily 
explained. But was the mariner to deny himself 
the use of the compass in the stormy and trackless 
ocean, or to attribute the influence of the load- 
stone to the contrivance of Satan, because the 
" how" and the " why" and the " wherefore " had 
not been philosophically accounted for? All he 
could say was, that the needle was guided by the 
finger of that Divine Being, whose ways were in 
the great deep, and whose footsteps are unknown. 
And all we can say is, that Mesmerism is the 
good " gift of God " for the use of his creature 
man, though its immediate and secondary causes 
are at present inexplicable — the good gift of that 

* See the Sermon, p. 152. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 21 

merciful and Almighty Father, who is " always, 
everywhere, and all in all." 

And, secondly, as to his expectation that the 

laws of this science should act " uniformly" 

" It is a part (says he) of all nature's laws that they 

shall act uniformly If it be in nature, it will 

operate uniformly, and not capriciously. If it 
acts capriciously, then there is some mischievous 
agent at work." Of course in this implied charge 
of capriciousness, or want of uniformity, he refers 
to a variation of the symptoms or phenomena 
exhibited respectively by different patients. And 
in consequence of this variation, which must be 
admitted, his hearers are taught that the " sin of 
witchcraft" has ensnared the operators, and that 
some mocking, juggling fiend has taken possession 
of the patient. Now in regard to nature's laws, 
we at once agree that they are fixed, consistent, 
and unalterable. The physical world abhors 
" capriciousness." " Comets are regular," and 
nature " plain." It is for this reason that sciences 
are called " exact." To take an instance or two at 
random, we know that in the process of crystal- 
lization, certain bodies invariably assume certain 
specific forms ; and that in electro-magnetism, the 
mutual attraction or repulsion of electrified sub- 
stances is directly proportional to the quantity of 
electricity conjointly in each of them. All these 
facts fall under the category of general laws. 
And does Mr. M'Neile imagine that the laws 
c 3 



22 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

which govern Mesmerism are not equally fixed, 
consistent, and uniform, though phenomena vary 
when the accidents differ? Does he imagine that 
a seeming " capriciousness," or eccentricity, is 
not in reality a sure unalterable result of some 
unknown or inexplicable cause. We would lay 
it down as an unequivocal position, admitting of 
no exception, that where the accidents are the 
same, where the relative circumstances of the 
operator and the patient are precisely similar, the 
effects or phenomena would be as certain and 
regular as in any of those sciences termed exact. 
But the difficulty is to find this precise undevia- 
ting resemblance — this absence of all difference, 
and hence the apparent want of uniformity. In 
so sensitive, delicate, varying a frame as the 
human body, so subject to " skyey influences"— 
so affected by diet, clothing, lodging, and climate 
— so changed by a thousand minor incidents, 
could the same uniformity of action be expected 
as in inert matter or mechanical substance ? Is it 
probable, that a patient, wasted by years of de- 
pletion and violent medicines, and with whom 
blisterings, and cuppings, and leechings had gone 
their round, would exhibit the same symptoms as 
some robust and hearty sportsman, whose con- 
stitution had been tried by nothing of the same 
order ? Would not a diet of port wine or porter 
produce a very different habit of body from that 
created by blue pill and Abernethy's biscuits ? 



MESMERISM AXD ITS OPPOXEXTS. 23 

We are taking certain extreme and opposite 
conditions ; but when we reflect that the circum- 
stances of constitution, of custom, of food, of 
disease, admit of as many varieties as the human 
face divine; that these varieties form the habit 
of body ; and that it is upon our bodies so mo- 
dified, that Mesmerism acts, common sense must 
see that perfect uniformity of result is hardly 
probable. For instance, with one party, the mes- 
meric sleep is obtained at the first sitting ; with 
another, not for several days or weeks. One 
patient recognises the hand of the operator, and 
cannot endure the touch even of a relative ; with 
another, to be touched by either is a thing indif- 
ferent. One only hears the voice of the operator ; 
another, without preference, answers any speaker. 
Xay, with the same patient the symptoms vary at 
various sittings. Still, in spite of all this, we say, 
that in main essential points, the resemblance or 
uniformity is very remarkable; that the proper- 
ties, as thus developed, have an evident affinity ; 
but if Mesmerisers are not able to lay down broad 
general rules, predictive of positive results, the 
fault is to be found in our imperfect acquaintance 
with a new study, in the difficulty of the science 
and the delicacy of the human frame, which is its 
subject. But is there any thing strange in this ? 
Surely we might find something very analogous 
in our favourite illustration from natural philo- 
sophy. The nature of electricity, for instance, is 
C 4 



24 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

not so perfectly known, that a law could be laid 
down by general reasoning, so as to foretel of a 
certainty the manner in which electrified bodies 
would act, in any position, in which they might 
be respectively placed. Do we, therefore, say that 
there is no uniformity ; or, as Mr. M'Neile might 
say, that there is no electricity, or rather, that the 
whole is determined by the accidental caprices of 
Satan ? No ; we answer that the distance of the 
positive and negative bodies being known, and 
no derangement arising from other or accidental 
causes, their uniformity of action is certain ; but 
we add, that as philosophers could not determine 
a just theory of all this from the physical princi- 
ples of electricity, it was necessary to proceed by 
observation and comparison of phenomena before 
the law of variation could be fully established. 
And so it is in Animal-magnetism ; it will be by 
observation, by induction of various and numerous 
particulars, as exhibited in individuals of various 
constitutions and habits, that any approach to a 
consistent theory of action can be established. All 
this will require much time, and many and te- 
dious experiments ; and my own opinion certainly 
is, that in the operation of this system on so sen- 
sitive a subject as the human frame, it will be 
almost impossible to lay down specific and positive 
rules of its effects, in all cases, and under every 
modification of temperament. 

And this, forsooth, is the foundation on which 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 25 

the weighty charge of Satanic agency is attempted 
to be built ! These the reasons on which Christian 
men are warned against going near Mesmeric 
meetings, or hearing any Mesmeric lectures ! I 
would not speak with harshness of any language 
or conduct that appeared to take its rise from 
motives of piety, however misdirected ; but where 
so mischievous a delusion has taken root, both 
justice and humanity require us to say, that never 
in the history of the human mind has an idle and 
miserable bugbear been created from more weak 
and worthless materials. If there be any thing 
supernatural in the matter, it is that a man of 
Mr. M'Neile's acknowledged abilities could have 
given utterance to such puerilities ; and that when 
they were published, any parties could care to 
distribute them to their neighbours ; and that 
when read, any single mind could have been in- 
fluenced by the perusal. I have felt sometimes 
ashamed at encountering this solemn trifling with 
earnest argument — but even since this work has 
been commenced, I have met with several addi- 
tional instances, in which a superstitious awe on 
the subject of Mesmerism, produced exclusively 
by this sermon, had seized the minds of the un- 
happy sufferers, and deterred them from employing 
a remedy peculiarly adapted to relieve them. It 
seems incredible — yet such were the facts ; truth 
is stranger than fiction; and so I resumed my 
pen with an increased desire of doing some little 



26 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

good in abating the folly. I hoped to remind the 
admirers of Mr. M'Neile, that powerful as he is, 
his power rather lies in the command of language 
than in the strength of argument — that he carries 
more sail than ballast ; and, certainly, that when 
he scattered around him such words as " witch- 
craft " and " necromancy," and called down, as it 
were, a fire from heaven on the heads of benevo- 
lent lecturers, the minister of St. Jude's had al- 
together forgotten " what spirit he was of." 



27 



CHAP. II. 

MESMERIC AGENT INVISIBLE. — GRAVITATION. — ANECDOTE 
FROM WEST INDIES. — NEW SYSTEM OF REMEDIES MAR- 
VELLOUS. POWER OF CLERGY, AND SPIRITUAL TYRANNY. 

WITCHCRAFT. BARK INTRODUCED BY JESUITS. — INOCU- 
LATION. — VACCINATION. SIN OF ARRAIGNING GOD'S 

BOUNTIES, WHAT SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 

CHARGE BROUGHT AGAINST MESMERISERS. LINES " ON 

HEARING MESMERISM CALLED IMPIOUS." 

Deplorable as is a rhapsody like that which 
the last chapter examined, there is nothing new 
in the state of feeling, of which it is but the index. 
There is a tendency in the human mind to refer 
every thing that cannot be explained to the in- 
fluence of Satan ; and though this idea of the 
supernatural has been refuted over and over 
again by subsequent discoveries, men still continue 
haunted with the same restless fears of the mys- 
terious, and suppose the man of science to have 
signed a contract with the spirit of evil. But 
the one thing in Mesmerism that so especially dis- 
turbs the imagination of the timid, and produces 

o much of painful feeling, is the fact, that the 
immediate agent is invisible. It is this that throws 

o mystical a character over the subject. Super- 
stition then comes to the aid of ignorance; for 
ft-hen men cannot perceive all that exists, it is an 



28 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

easy way of solving the difficulty, by assuming 
that the whole transaction is beyond the boundary 
of nature. " If I could but see what causes al 
this/' said a fair disciple of M'Neile's one day 
" I should be easier." " The devil," observes the 
sermon, st works here unseen" These reasoned 
require a visible patent fluid to pass before theii 
eyes to clear the practice of its sinfulness. Ii 
demanding this, they forget that there are othei 
agents in nature which are outwardly imper 
ceptible. For in accordance with this argu 
ment the evil spirit must be at work in the air w( 
breathe, and in the wind by which our navies are 
wafted, for it is only through their effects tha 
we discern them ; — and the Christian passengei 
should refuse to embark on any vessel but a steam 
ship ; and enter a solemn protest to the captain 
if he presume to consult his compass as a guide tc 
the destined haven. 

But the power that thus directs one of the 
extremities of the magnetic needle to the north 
is not the only invisible influence in nature. " We 
may suspect," says an able French writer*, "tha 
there are in the world several subtle fluids, anc 
certain concealed properties, of which we have ye 
no notion ; and this is the reason why we fine 
many phenomena inexplicable." But I canno 
do better than give the words of a friend on thi* 

* M. Virey, in "L'Art de perfectionner 1'Homme." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 29 

subject, in one of his powerfully written letters : — 
" How senseless (says he) is the objection of those 
who demand the explanation of a cause, as though 
there were one power of any description that ever 
was or ever can be explained. We register effects, 
and the course of these effects; of the nature 
of a cause we know nothing. Gravitation is per- 
haps of all powers the most universal and the 
best understood, but who can explain this ? We 
see the stone fall to the ground, and smoke rise 
up aloft, the storm rushes by, and the mountain 
torrent dashes over the precipice into the gulf 
below — but of the cause of all these various and 
apparently opposite effects, we know nothing — 
but that the power is simple and uniform : it is 
attraction, a sympathy between bodies, but which 
is no explanation. We cannot see it, for power 
is an action beyond the sphere of our perceptions ; 
we know it in the effect of matter on matter, and 
can trace the course of these effects through all 
material nature, but nothing more — we observe 
the conditions under which each effect is made 
manifest, but beyond which all is mystery ; of the 
cause we know nothing. It is the same with 
the phenomena of animal life which we perceive 
through the action of Mesmerism, the results of 
which are uniform under similar conditions, but 
vary with all the changes observable in the living 
body ; and so far as we are acquainted with these 
changes, can we calculate upon the result of Mes- 



30 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

meric action ; and it is the same with the effects 
which follow in the course of every other power 
by which the living body is influenced ; the laws 
of action are but the recognised material condi- 
tions under which any effects take place, and 
nothing more. Could we even perceive a me- 
dium of communication between acting bodies, as 
the wire which conveys electricity, or the air 
which communicates all the exquisite harmonies 
of sound to the sensitive nerve, or really witness a 
visible tangible fluid passing out from one body 
into another, the difficulty and the mystery would 
be the same ; for a fluid is not a power, nor a me- 
dium of communication a cause of the influence 
which it communicates ; these are but the dif- 
ferent chains in the links of material appearances, 
which for convenience we call causation; but 
which in truth explain nothing ; they are but 
means to an end, the filling up of the links in the 
chain. Gunpowder explodes by the near approach 
of flame, — but which the circumstance of the 
slightest damp will prevent. Now, who can the least 
explain these phenomena ; or tell us what is light, 
or heat, or the nature of this repulsive power, — 
which is the explosion. In all matters on which 
we are ignorant, we should suspend our judg- 
ment ; for experience alone can lead to knowledge, 
and the wisest of men have ever been the most 
humble before truth, and the most careful in 
giving judgment ; for their experience has shown 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 31 

the folly of human wisdom in giving judgment 
without knowledge; that knowledge which is 
power : for the ignorance of the indolent is not 
bliss : ( for though all knowledge/ says Lord 
Bacon, c is valuable and connected, the know- 
ledge of man to man is the most important, and 
ought to be the foundation of every system of 
education :' let us then, with pure humility and 
an earnest spirit, seek to know ourselves, that we 
may be wise unto salvation, — praising God for 
all that he may reveal to us, and not in the pride 
:>f intellect without inquiry, presumptuously re- 
ect the light which is from Heaven, and ascribe 
the ways of God to the agency of Satan." 

After all, this dread of the mysterious depends 
ltogether upon the accident of our experience. 
Habit reconciles us to every thing. What is as a 
niracle in one century, is a matter of course in 
mother. And if our eyes be but accustomed to 
i particular result, though the cause may tran- 
scend our senses, it never enters into the thoughts 
)f the large majority of men to ask whether the 
ictual agent be unseen or visible. There is a 
curious story mentioned in that amusing little 
vork, " Six Months in the West Indies," which 
trikingly illustrates this remark. When a 
;teamer was first started at Trinidad, Sir Ralph 
iVoodford took a trip of pleasure in her through 
ome of the Bocas into the main ocean. " When 
hey were in the middle of the passage, a small 



32 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

privateer was seen making all sail for the shore of 
the island. Her course seemed unaccountable ; 
but what was their surprise when they observed 
that; on nearing the coast, she ran herself directly 
on shore, her crew at the same time leaping out 
over the sides of the vessel, and scampering up 
the mountains!" This was so strange a sight that, 
to discover the cause, Sir Ralph went on board of 
the privateer, and found only one man there with 
a broken limb, in a posture of supplication. " He 
was pale as ashes, his teeth chattered, and his 
hair stood on end, and c Misericordia, Miseri- 
cordia,' was his only reply." The explanation at 
last was, that " they saw a vessel steering with- 
out a single sail, directly in the teeth of the wind, 
current, and tide ; that they knew no ship could 
move in such a course by human means; that 
they concluded it to be a supernatural appear- 
ance," — " and that when he himself heard Sii 
Ralph's footsteps, he verily and indeed believed thai 
he was fallen into the hands of the evil spirit.' 
Here, now, was a state of terror, as in Mes- 
merism, the result of novelty alone. This Spa- 
niard had been accustomed all his life to steer his 
little vessel through the aid of an unseen mag- 
netic power, and by the invisible action of th 
wind; and there was nothing wonderful to hin 
in these ordinary properties of nature ; — but wher 
a ship was propelled by the means of human ma 
chinery, by paddles, and boilers, and steam tha 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 33 

were open to the eye, this unusual spectacle filled 
the poor sailors with a dread of approaching evil, — 
they " concluded it to be a supernatural appear- 
ance/' — while the real object of mystery remained 
unheeded in the cabin through the simple effect 
of daily habit. 

The turn, however, which the fears of the su- 
perstitious so frequently take, is in an uneasiness 
on the subject of medical treatment, and at the 
application of some new and unwonted remedy. 
This fact can be corroborated by writers without 
number. It is not the disease that so much 
alarms, as the cure that subdues it. It is 
hence that the populace takes affright ; on this 
that preachers preach, and the learned bestow 
their wisdom. Old Burton, in his well-known 
work, the " Anatomy of Melancholy," has a 
whole chapter on the tc rejection of unlawful 
cures" He gives us a catalogue of writers, who 
affirm that cures are perfected by diabolical 
agency. " Many doubt, saith Nicholas Taurellus, 
whether the divell can cure such diseases he hath 
not made> and some flatly deny it, howsoever 
common experience confirms to our astonishment, 
that magicians can worke such feats, and that the 
divell without impediment can penetrate through 
all parts of our bodies, and cure such maladies by 
meanes to us unknown." " Nothing so familiar,'' 
adds Burton, " as to hear of such cures : " — " we 

D 



34 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

see the effects only, but not the causes of them : " 
— " sorcerers are too common, who in every vil- 
lage will help almost all infirmities of body." 
" Many famous cures are daily done in this 
kind/' he adds again, " and the dwell is an expert 
physitian" And after a little farther discussion 
of the question, he decides, that it is " better to 
die than be so cured" * 

Galen, who has been termed the Prince of 
Physicians, and whose name is as a proverb in 
the profession, was accused of sorcery by his co- 
temporaries in reward for his unequalled success. 
" They turned against him even the credit of his 
cures, by the charge of having procured them 
through magical means" f Paracelsus, his dis- 
tinguished successor, was subject to the same im- 
putation. A physician named Sennert, born at 
Breslaw in 1572, suspected that Paracelsus had 
tampered in the black art, and seriously asserts 
that extraordinary cures can only be performed 
by a compact with Satan. For he says, that 
" the devil has a competent knowledge of physic, 
but as all his favours and promises are deceitful 
and destructive to soul and body, no benefit, but 
much evil was to be expected." He then ad- 
monishes physicians rather to acquiesce with resig- 



* Burton, "Anatomy Mel.," part. ii. p. 220. edit. 1632. 

f " lis tournerent meme contre lui Feci at de certaines cures, 
en l'accusant de les obtenir par des rnoyens magiques." — Biogra- 
phie Univer., art. " Galien." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 35 

nation in the death of their patients, than preserve 
them by impious means."* And the part that 
"enlightened" Europe has acted in regard to 
witchcraft is only too notorious ; thousands of 
unhappy wretches have suffered at the stake on 
this accusation, not always as a punishment for a 
presumed injury or to gratify revengeful feelings, 
but in consequence of cures effected by the simplest 
herbs and through the aid of nature, after repeated 
failures of the faculty. 

All this is melancholy enough ; and a sad 
answer to those who talk of the dignity of human 
nature. But bad as it is, something worse re- 
mains behind, viz., that the clergy f of all per- 
suasions have too generally led the van in these 
abominable persecutions. 

Religion has been well termed, by one of our 
best living writers, " the medicine of the soul ;" 
— " it is," he says, " the designed and appro- 

* " Quanquam vero negari non possit Diabolum rerum medi- 
carum satis esse peritum." — Sennert, torn. i. p. 234. De Para- 
celso. — See Moore's " History of Small Pox," p. 184. 

f In making this statement, I seek not the worthless distinc- 
tion of liberality at the expense of my wiser and far superior 
brethren. But there are points on which a well-known proverb 
must be brought to memory. Truth, especially gospel truth, 
ought to be dearer than factitious claims. And when religion is 
exposed to the scoffs of the unbeliever, through the injudicious 
advocacy of its own supporters, it is necessary to show that the 
conduct which does the mischief is no part of the system, but the 
reprobated superaddings of a mistaken friend. This is essentially 
a scientific age ; and the more needful is it to be understood that 
there is no other hostility between religion and science than what 
arises out of the grossest ignorance. God's works and words speak 
but the same language. 

D 2 



36 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

priate remedy for the evils of our nature ;" — but 
this medicine, unhappily, is not only easily pol- 
luted by the poison of superstition, but the dregs 
of human passion and human vanity too readily and 
too often mingle with the cup. The object, which 
the ministers of the gospel have in view, is of so 
momentous a nature, of an importance so above 
and beyond every other consideration, that it may 
seem, to zealous minds, almost to justify the adop- 
tion of any means towards its attainment. If the 
soul be but saved, what matter the process, says 
the carnal reasoning of the sophist. But, happily, 
we are forbidden by the highest authority to " do 
evil that good may come:" and even the salva- 
tion of sinners is not to be accomplished by un- 
righteous ways. Still, this golden rule of Scrip- 
ture is too frequently forgotten by the young and 
by the ardent. Anxious to carry on the great 
work that is before him, — eager to enlarge the 
number of his proselytes, our enthusiastic teacher 
is not always sufficiently careful as to the quality 
of the argument he adopts in his persuasions. A 
little " pious fraud " he trusts may be very ex- 
cusable. Not content with denouncing in words 
of gravest censure the ungodly and the vicious, — 
not satisfied with " reasoning on righteousness, 
and temperance, and judgment to come," he must 
needs travel a little aside into the region of the 
doubtful and the imaginative. And if he be a 
man of talent as well as of energy, he soon per- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 37 

ceives the result. He sees his congregation per- 
plexed, alarmed, and anxious. He finds out that 
fatal secret, — fatal I mean to the happiness of 
others, — the pleasure of wielding power. He 
learns the power of the strong mind over the 
weak, — of the crafty over the credulous, — of the 
fanatic leader over the bigoted follower. And 
this power once tasted, is far too delicious to be 
laid down : — it must now be maintained at any 
cost. One preacher promotes it by enforcing the 
most puerile and superstitious ceremonies ; an- 
other by confounding things in themselves inno- 
cent and indifferent, and only blameable in their 
excess, with things positively sinful and forbidden 
in Scripture ; — a third thunders forth his ana- 
themas against the philosophic inquirer, and places 
on a level the man, who humbly searches into the 
wonders of Providence with one who is living 
without God in the world. And the more supple 
and complying that they find their people, the 
more exacting and progressive are they in their 
demands. This then is Priestcraft, be it exer- 
cised by what persuasion it may. It is that in- 
tolerable spiritual tyranny, that lording it over 
men's minds and consciences, which has done more 
injury to the pure evangelical faith, — which has 
more retarded the course of the everlasting Gospel, 
than all the writings of all the deists from Bo- 
lingbroke to Voltaire. It is in fact one of the 
very evils that have created deism. It belongs 
d 3 



38 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

not in particular to one body of Christians more 
than to another, though the church of Rome has 
been taxed unjustly with an exclusive attachment 
to its use. Those, however, who look into the 
annals of the church, and analyse the springs of 
human action, will find it a feeling all but uni- 
versal. Pope and Presbyter, Wesleyan and Bap- 
tist, have alike displayed it. The High Church 
movement at Oxford, and the Free Church Schism 
at Edinburgh, are equally emanations of the same 
principle, though the accidents of their two sys- 
tems may be widely opposite. Our evangelical 
party have, in their own peculiar way, shown the 
warmest predilections for this power; no men 
have more domineered over the weak and igno- 
rant than have they ; — and the ministers of dis- 
senting congregations, in spite of their loud pro- 
fessions to the contrary, have, where the occasion 
has been offered them, been as little free as any 
from the same hateful practice. And thus have 
they all succeeded in spoiling the simplicity of the 
Gospel through " vain deceit after the rudiments 
of the world and not after Christ," and rendered 
its pure and blessed morality of none effect through 
their additions. But the strangest thing in the 
matter is the fondness of the people for wearing 
the yoke. Be the doctrine or discipline what it 
may, the laity seem always ready to receive the 
most monstrous statements, and to uphold the 
pretensions of the most ambitious, if the teachers 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 39 

themselves appear but in earnest. Affection for 
priestcraft would almost seem an inherent prin- 
ciple in the human heart. Populus vult decipi: or 
as the Prophet said of old, " the people love to have 
it so, and the priests bear rule by these means." 
Moderation never was and never will be popular. 
Bitterness, bigotry, extreme and extravagant opi- 
nions, these are the things that are palatable with 
the vulgar. And hence it has been that in all 
ages of Christianity, those who by their educa- 
tion and position ought to have taken the lead in 
promoting the claims of science, were the very par- 
ties that sought a reputation for sanctity by head- 
ing the outcry against it : and hence it is, that in 
the case of Mesmerism, in other towns of Eng- 
land besides that of Liverpool, some of the clergy 
have succeeded in tightening the chains with 
which they have enthralled the weakest members 
of their flock, by second-hand denunciations on 
the wickedness of the system, and by mourning 
over some of the most virtuous practisers of the 
art as the hopeless victims of satanic cruelty ! * 

* This is not asserted from a loose assumption. Those who 
disbelieve in Mesmerism, and have not given attention to its 
claims, have no conception of the strong language used on the 
subject, for the sanction of which appeal is made to the authority 
of Mr. M'Neile. Not many months since, I was staying a few 
days in one of our midland counties, — and on spending an evening 
with a friend, part of the family remained absent. I afterwards 
discovered that they refused to make their appearance, as a mes- 
meriser was in the room, and the conversation might turn on the 
practice. A short time previously to this visit, the clergyman of 
their parish had collected the most obedient members of his con- 
gregation together, and, addressing them in awful language, 
D 4 



40 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

These things are matter of history ; and it may 
be a useful, though humbling lesson to bring for- 
ward a few instances in proof. It may encourage 
a spirit of caution in those who teach ; it may 
check the leaning towards credulity in those who 
hear. And without alluding to the well-known 
examples in the study of astronomy, of geology, 
and other branches of natural philosophy, I shall 
confine myself to a few remarkable cases taken 
from the practice of medicine, as bearing an 
affinity to the curative power of the mesmerist. 

I begin, therefore, with witchcraft, for the 
charge of witchcraft, as was before stated, too 
commonly arose out of the medical success of the 
offender ; and on this point what a tale of horror 
has the conduct of the clergy to call up. 

The persecutions for witchcraft did not com- 
mence in Europe till towards the close of the fifth- 
teenth century ; that is, when what are called the 
dark or middle ages were rapidly passing away. 
In 1484, at the time of our Richard the Third, 
Pope Innocent VIIL, in his conclave of cardinals, 
denounced death to all who should be convicted 
of witchcraft. The succeeding popes, Alexander 
VI., and even Pope Leo X., the polished and 
enlightened Leo, lent their aid in this fearful per- 
secution. About 1515, just before Luther com- 

entreated their prayers for some lost brethren and sisters. These 
lost brethren were some benevolent and Christian people who 
had been devoting their days and nights to the relief of their 
suffering neighbours. And this in the 1 9th century ! 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 41 

menced his career, 500 witches were executed 
in Geneva: 1000 were executed in the Diocese 
of Como. In Lorraine 900 were burnt. In 
France the multitude of executions is called " in- 
credible." In Germany, after the publication of 
the Pope's bull, the number of victims stated is 
so portentous, as to lead to the hope that there 
must be some mistake in the calculation ; and we 
are told that the clergy went about preaching 
what were called " Witch Sermons" and inspiring 
the people with a fanatic ardour in the pursuit. # 

In England the executions were frightfully 
numerous, especially at the period when the Pres- 
byterian and Independent clergy were in the as- 
cendant. During the puritanic supremacy of the 
famous Long Parliament, 3000 victims suffered. 

But it was in Scotland, after the Reformation, 
and more especially after the triumphant establish- 
ment of the Presbyterian Kirk, that some of the 
darkest scenes were enacted. The General As- 
sembly passed an act for all ministers to take note 
of witches and charms, and over and over again 
pressed upon parliament a consideration of the 
ubject. In following up the accusations, the 
clergy exhibited the most rancorous zeal, and 
were themselves often the parties who practised 
the worst cruelties. We may rail against Tor- 



i 



* I have abridged the above facts and figures from Combe's 
mirable work on the Constitution of Man, and rely on his 
ccuracy for their correctness. 



42 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

quemada and his Dominicans, but it may be a 
question whether the Inquisition of Spain inflicted 
more real domestic misery than was endured 
under the galling bondage of John Knox and his 
platform. True, there was no auto-da-fe; but, 
in its stead, there was a system of espionage, of 
informations and visitations, which carried dismay 
and unhappiness to every household hearth. In 
fact, the spiritual tyranny of the Kirk of Scotland 
was often intolerable. Documents show that no 
habits of private life were left untouched by its 
meddling jurisdiction. And those in the present 
day, who are abetting the recent Free Church 
measures, should well consider what they are 
bringing upon themselves ; for there can be little 
doubt, that the leaders of the secession, in spite 
of the apparently popular character of their pro-j 
ceedings, are aiming at a return to the old eccle 
siastical domination, and to the prostration of th< 
purses and persons of their people, under the iro: 
rule of an ambitious presbytery. 

Some curious books have been lately published 
which throw a valuable light on the old conduct 
of the Kirk. I allude to the Miscellanies of the 
Spalding Club. They ought to be well studiec 
by the present admirers of spiritual discipline. Ii 
the first volume, there is a document published 
called " Trials for Witchcraft," which contain n 
less than fifty papers relating to different trial 
before the kirk sessions for that offence. 



MESMERISM A^D ITS OPPONENTS. 43 

second volume is called w Extracts from the Pres- 
bytery Book of Strathbogie," in which we may 
read how the clergy took fearful cognizance of 
each action of private life, and accused and pun- 
ished the " suspected" for their magical skill. A 
few samples may be instructive. There is a trial 
of poor Helen Fraser, who was convicted before 
the " presbeterie of Foverne," among other charges, 
for promising one " Johne Ramsay, who was sick 
of a consuming disease, to do quhat in hir lay for 
the recoverie of his health;" but it was to be 
kept secret, for the " world was evil, and spake 
na gude of sic medicines." Janet Ingram had 
also sent for Helen to cure her. 

There is a narrative of a meeting held at the 
kirk of Caldstane, and a poor victim is brought 
forward, who was accused of calling on George 
Rychie's mother, and promising to take off his 
sickness. 

Mr. John Ross, the minister at Lumphanon, 
and the parson of Kincardine, O'Neil, send in 
documents to the sessions, accusing of witchcraft 
nine or ten persons. 

At Belhelvie, one Janet Ross is accused of 
witchcraft, and denies it, but she confesses to pre- 
scribing to a patient, sick of fever, an egg with a 
little aqua-vitse and pepper ; she had used the 
same for her self in her own disease. 

One George Seifright is summoned before the 
kirk, and rebuked for consulting about his wife's 



44 MESMEPaSM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

sickness, and bringing some poor woman to cure 
her. 

Issobel Malcolme is accused of charming and 
curing a child's sore eye. 

Isabel Haldone, of Perth, confesses upon accu- 
sation to having given drinks to cure bairns. 

Three poor women are executed in 1623 at 
Perth for doctoring; and the kirk session called 
up and censured the parties who had sought cures 
at their hands. 

In short, as the editor says in the preface, these 
charges were " generally connected with cures 
wrought or attempted for some severe disease" The 
ignorant prosecutors could not explain what they 
saw : it was a paradox to them, how an old woman 
by the administration of simples could cure dis- 
eases, which had resisted the wisdom of the pro- 
fessor ; and so cutting the knot, which they could 
not untie, they trumped up a charge of sorcery as 
a salvo and excuse for their own folly. 

Let us come to another instance. When, in 
1649, the Jesuits imported into Europe the Peru- 
vian bark, and for this act and for their philan- 
thropic exertions in Paraguay made atonement to 
society for much of that conduct which has ren- 
dered their name a proverb, the most wonderful 
effects were produced in Rome by its use. Geoffroy, 
in his Materia Medica, states, that Cardinal de 
Lugo and his brethren distributed gratis a great 
quantity among the " religious," and the poor of 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 45 

the city. Agues and intermittent fevers were 
cured as if by enchantment. GeofFroy says that 
the cures were thought too rapid (trop prompt). 
And hence, as we learn elsewhere, not only did 
physicians interfere, but " ecclesiastics prohibited 
sick persons from using it, alleging that it pos- 
sessed no virtue but what it derived from a com- 
pact made by the Indians with the Devil." * And 
thus this useful, this invaluable drug was, on its 
first introduction, treated as Mesmerism is now, 
and ascribed to the invention of the father of all 
evil. And of course the spiritual guides of those 
days thought, with old Burton, that it was " better 
for the patient to die," than be cured of his ague 
by such a remedy ! 

When, in 1718, inoculation for small-pox was 
adopted in this country, the greatest uproar was 
stirred up against it. Not only was the whole 
medical world opposed to it, but farther, as Moore 
tells us in his amusing work on Inoculation, " some 
zealous churchmen, conceiving that it was re- 
pugnant to religion, thought it their duty to 
interfere. * * * They wrote and preached that 
Inoculation was a daring attempt to interrupt the 
eternal decrees of Providence" (p. 237.) Lord 
►Vharncliffe, in his life of Lady "Wortley Montagu, 
says, that the " clergy descanted from their pulpits 
on its impiety." Oh ! if Mr. Paul and his Penny- 

* See Colquhoun's " Isis Revelata." 



46 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Pulpit reporters had but been living in those 
days, what gems of reasoning and rhetoric might 
have been preserved to us ! Fortunately a few 
Folia Sybillina are yet extant. A Mr. Massey 
preached in 1722 in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, 
that " all who infused the variolous ferment were 
hellish sorcerers, and that inoculation was the 
diabolical invention of Satan." * And one of the 
rectors of Canterbury, the Reverend Theodore de 
la Fayef, perhaps exceeded this in his sermon, for 
he denounced with horror inoculation as the off- 
spring of atheism, and drew a touching parallel 
between the virtue of resignation to the Divine 
will and its practice. Similar minds see similar 
objects under a similar view. And it is hardly 
necessary to observe the strong resemblance that 
exists between the arguments delivered in Holborn 
and Canterbury at the beginning of the last cen- 
tury to the expressions so recently uttered in the 
pulpit of St. Jude's at Liverpool. 

When vaccination made its appearance, the 
same hubbub arose. Agaip was the medical pro- 
fession up in arms ; again did the pulpits resound 
with denunciations. Some of the clergy discovered 
vaccination to be antichrist. Moore, in his His- 



* See a Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Massey, against the sinful 
practice of Inoculation. July 8th, 1722. 

f A Discourse against Inoculating ; with a Parallel between 
the Scripture Notion of Divine Resignation and the Practice of 
Inoculation. 1751. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 47 

tory of Vaccination., says, that " the opposition to 
vaccination was much more violent in England 
than in other countries." (p. 115.) He says again, 
the imaginations of many females were so much 
disturbed with tales of horror concerning it, that 
they could not even listen to any proofs of their 
falsehood" (p. 122.) The learned author of the 
"Principles and Practice of Medicine " says, that 
when vaccination was introduced, "it was said, 
that it was taking the power out of God's hand ; 
that God gave us the small-pox, and that it was 
impious to interrupt it by the cow-pock. When I 
was a boy, I heard people say that it was an ir- 
religious practice, and that it was taking the 
power out of God's hand, forgetting that it is 
merely using that power which God has given us. 
Sermons were preached against it; and handbills 
were stuck about the streets. I recollect seeing it 
stated in a handbill, that a person who was inocu- 
lated for the cow-pock had horns growing in conse- 
quence of it." (p. 479.) These now are the annals 
of small-pox : and thus in a few years hence, when 
Mesmerism shall be firmly established, — and when 
it will be as much a matter of course for a neu- 
ralgic patient to apply to its influence for a cure, 
as it is now for a mother to have her infant 
vaccinated, the future historian will relate, among" 
the curiosities of the subject, that two sermons 
were actually preached one Sunday in Liverpool, 
denouncing as impious and satanic, the practice 



48 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

of so simple, so common, and so natural an act as 
the exercise of the Mesmeric manipulations. 

Truly this satanic agency is a clever actor of 
all work ! Numberless are the difficulties that are 
removed by it. " All the world's a stage ;" and 
one and the same interpretation "plays in its 
time many parts." 

For, first, satanic agency comes forward in the 
character of an old woman, curing the sore eyes 
of a boy by an infusion of dockweed. 

Satanic agency next appears in the character 
of a Jesuit, scowling darkly around, and curing 
a tertian ague by the Peruvian cinchona. 

Satanic agency again appears in the character 
of Lady Wortley Montagu, importing inocula- 
tion from Turkey, and arresting the fearful ra- 
vages of small-pox ! 

Satanic agency again appears in the character 
of Doctor Jenner, consulting the College of Phy- 
sicians, and saving myriads of infants by the 
process of vaccination ! 

And, lastly, Satanic agency appears in the 
character of a modern Mesmeriser, healing, by 
his soothing power, some of the most distressing 
diseases, and expelling a whole train of neuralgic 
pains, which had defied the skill of the faculty ! 

And they, who utter these denunciations, think 
that they are doing God service ! 

Rather do they throw a serious discredit on 
religion. Rather do they inflict on it material 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 49 

disservice. They make the infidel and barren 
spectator laugh, and the judicious and thinking 
Christian grieve. They overload the Gospel with 
a weight that does not belong to it. They affect 
the mind in the same way as the legends and false 
miracles of the church of Rome, " in leading cap- 
tive" the silliest of women through a grovelling 
superstition, but disgusting men of sense by their 
absurdity, and converting the philosopher into 
half an infidel. Enjoined to believe all these 
statements, men end in believing none. In this 
respect, then, these pious frauds are a mistake, if 
we may so speak. They do not accomplish the 
object aimed at. They do not increase, but rather 
lessen the amount of real Christianity. But they 
are not merely a mistake, — they are far worse, — 
they are positively immoral and sinful. In as- 
serting this, we are far from singling out Mr. 
M'Xeile as the object of our remarks. His views 
are but an indication of opinions that are afloat. 
He is but one out of many. We rather regret to 
see a man of his abilities lending the sanction of 
his name to such absurdities. He is a person of 
weight in the religious world ; and therefore do 
we appeal to him, and ask, — if, in giving cur- 
rency to these dogmata, he has well considered 
his responsibilities as a teacher. To speak of the 
bounties of Providence as the temptings of the 
evil one, ■ — ■ to treat a blessing as if it were a curse, 
— to condemn a benefit before it be examined, — 

E 



50 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

as is the wont of the religious opponents of Mes- 
merism, — seems to me the conduct of a thought- 
less unthankful spirit. " If the Lord would make 
windows in heaven, might this thing be?" was 
the speech of the unbelieving Lord at the pro- 
mised plenty to Samaria. (2 Kings, vii. 2.) " He 
doeth these wonders through Beelzebub, the chief 
of the devils," — was the answer of the hardened 
Jews to the works of our Divine Master: and 
what are the marvels of Mesmerism, — but equally 
the works of God, — equally flowing from the 
same heavenly fount as the miracles of the blessed 
Jesus, — the one indeed effected immediately at 
His word, — the other through those secondary 
agents of which He is the first and only source. 
We therefore say, that it is our duty as Chris- 
tians to see the Hand of God in the work, 
— that it is our duty to recognize so good, so 
merciful, so healing an influence, as a proof of the 
Almighty's care for his people. To do less than 
this argues a want of faith, and a lowering and 
an undervaluing of the Divine attributes. Our 
bodily frame may indeed be full of complicated 
and mysterious movements ; but what is that to 
faith ? a mystery is no mystery to the eye of 
faith. The Psalmist could tell us, that " we are 
fearfully and wonderfully made;" the Psalmist 
could tell us that it is God " who hath fashioned 
us behind and before," — that it is " God who laid 
his hand upon us," — and that "in his book all 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 51 

our members are written." To say, therefore, 
that " the flesh of man's body cannot be placed in 
a Mesmeric state, except by supernatural means," 
is to show a forgetfulness of God. " Be ye sure 
that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath 
made us, and not we ourselves ;" —we are but clay 
in the hands of the potter. The Divine Creator 
forms one vessel to honour, and another to dis- 
honour ; — he divides severally to each of us our 
separate qualities, — to some he gives spiritual 
gifts, — to others physical, — to others a union of 
both : " He will have mercy on whom He will 
have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth," — 
but whether they be gifts of grace, or gifts of 
nature, they all flow from Him, — for "of Him, 
and through Him, and to Him are all things," and 
" by Him do all things consist." 

Let not, then, the Christian misunderstand me. 
In thus opposing the main tenets of this sermon, 
do I make void the doctrine of satanic influence ? 
Do I deny its truth ? God forbid ! yea, rather 
would I establish it. My own painful experi- 
ence tells me, that in our religious warfare, we 
wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with the 
unseen powers and principalities of hell, with spi- 
ritual wickedness in high places. Firmly do I 
believe, with Holy Scripture, that the " devil 
goeth about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom 
I he may devour. " Wherever is seduction or 
| wickedness, there is Satan in the midst of us ; — 
E 2 



52 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

wherever is falsehood, imposture, and deceit, his 
kingdom reaches also ; — wherever are unjust 
and railing accusations against the brethren, — 
wherever are "lying wonders/' and claims to a 
false and pretended power, his presence may be 
known ; and my daily prayer is, after the teach- 
ing of our blessed Master, to be delivered not 
only from evil, — but also from "the Evil One." 
This is a creed of which all the wisdom of this 
world will never make me ashamed; — I am only 
anxious to place this doctrine on a scriptural and 
legitimate footing. With the apostolic Heber, I 
believe that "no slavish fears, no trifling super- 
stition can follow from these views, when regu- 
lated by reason and by Scripture." And while, 
with that lamented Bishop, I think that the " no- 
tions which God's word has taught us to entertain 
of evil spirits, are sufficient to discredit the ordi- 
nary tales of witchcraft," with him also do I 
believe, that our tempters to sin are " mighty 
and numerous," and that the name of the great 
adversary is " Legion." * 

But if no satisfactory reason can, after all, be 
advanced in maintenance of this charge of satanic 
agency, and that the position be abandoned as 
forlorn, our fanatical opponents shift their ground, 
in the next place, to an uncharitable imputation 
against the men themselves. The slavery of 

* See Heber's Sermon on the Existence and Influence of 
Evil Spirits ; and a Sermon by Bishop Hurd on James iv. 7. : 
" Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 53 

mind must be secured at any cost ; and so the 
world is instructed, that the thing itself must be 
wrong, because the creed of its supporters is dan- 
gerous and unsound. The leading Mesmerists, 
they say, are deists, sceptics, materialists ; and 
what good fruit, it is demanded, can grow or be 
gathered from such a stock ? And who are they 
that thus join in the accusation against the per- 
sons and principles of the Mesmeric school ? 
Many, who in their daily habits of domestic life 
are visited by practitioners, entertaining and 
avowing the very same views. And to be con- 
sistent, therefore, they who make the charge 
should be careful that the rule applied to every 
other therapeutic novelty and invention in sur- 
gery. But granted, that their sweeping denunci- 
ation be correct, it were surely a new ordeal, 
wherewith to test the merits of a medical dis- 
covery. For, after all, the real question is, how 
can such a charge affect the truth of the science 
itself? If all geologists were atheists, the fact 
would still remain, that the imbedment of certain 
fossils in certain strata does determine the relative 
succession of the latter, and throw considerable 
light on the structure of our globe. If all phre- 
nologists were materialists, the fact would still 
remain, that an habitual train of thought, of feel- 
ing, or of conduct does act through the brain 
on the external conformation of the skull, and fur- 
nish a faithful manifestation of the moral cha- 
E 3 



54 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

racter. And so if all Mesmerisers were deists, 
the fact would still remain, that that Supreme 
Being, who formed man out of the dust of the 
earth, and breathed into his soul the breath of 
life, did impart in his organization a sympathetic 
susceptibility to magnetic action, and that through 
this process a curative influence may be evolved 
of the highest value to suffering humanity. And 
is it, then, the fact, that this healing, this mer- 
ciful power is alone exercised or adopted by the 
scriptural unbeliever? Shame, then, on Chris- 
tians who can so neglect it ! Shame, then, on 
men who can thus arraign the bounties of Pro- 
vidence, and extract from the very gifts of cre- 
ation the poisoned materials for their own un- 
charitable assumptions ! But that the disciples of 
Mesmer belong so exclusively to the school of 
materialism, if we must not call it a libel, is at 
least a strange exaggeration of facts. That there 
may be some among them, is probable ; for in 
what department of knowledge, where a con- 
sciousness of intellectual power leads men on, has 
not the light of revelation been too often over- 
looked and forgotten ? Whether it be, as Bacon 
says in his Advancement of Learning, that " in 
the entrance of philosophy, when the second 
causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer 
themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and 
stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the 
Highest Cause ; " whether this be correct, I know 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 55 

not : but it is a common remark, that they, who 
by the habitual course of their studies, have been 
more accustomed than other men to look into the 
immediate causation of things, have been too 
generally found amongst the followers of Pyrrho 
and Epicurus ; — but I have yet to learn, that the 
observation applies with greater force to the stu- 
dents of Mesmerism than to those of any other 
science. Many there are amongst them, whom 
no Christian community need blush to own ; 
many, who by their faith and practice adorn the 
doctrine they profess ; — some, with whom I have 
walked to the house of God in company ; and all 
of them, with whom I am acquainted, are less 
deficient in that most excellent gift of charity, 
the very bond of peace and of all virtues, than 
those of their impugners, by whom the wanton 
cry is raised of infidelity and materialism. 

What, then, is the state of mind with which 
" wise, prudent, and Christian men should meet 
the present state of the question ? " I would not 
have them, from a disgust at the tendencies of this 
sermon, join the ranks of the infidel, and laugh to 
scorn the doctrine of Satanic agency, as the in- 
vention of men — holy Scripture teaches it; 
experimental religion confirms it ; but I would 
have them be cautious not to confound the 
ways of Providence* with the works of the 

* Since the above was written, I have met with a clever paper, 
full of curious matter, — called " Witchcraft and Mesmerism," — 

E 4 



56 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

evil one ; I would have them remember ei how 
little a part" of God's wonders are yet laid bare 
to his creatures ; I would have them look into the 
subject with a devotional spirit, anxious for truth, 
not rashly condemning that of which they are 
ignorant, lest haply, in their presumption, " they 
be found to be fighting against God." " Christian 
men" need not fear to be present at scientific 
lectures or physiological experiments, if they go 
in a Christian spirit. Hard words are no argu- 
ment. Accusations of " morbid curiosity," and 
u foolish novelties," and " devilish devices," carry 
no proofs of their truth to the thinking pious 
believer. If he goes, he goes with prayer — he 
goes with the Bible, if not in his hand, yet in his 
heart ; he goes to study the book of God's works 
by the book of God's word ; he goes with the full 
remembrance that "no science can save a soul," 
no natural knowledge bring us nearer to God. 
But if, on the other hand, it be sickness or bodily 
pain that hath entered into the Christian's dwell- 
ing, and that his knowledge of the healing pro- 
perties of Mesmerism should lead him to make ex- 
periment of its power, what are the feelings with 
which he would commence a trial of this unknown 
and unseen remedy ? He would " walk by faith 
and not by sight." He would regard it as only 
one out of many thousand gifts, bountifully be- 
stowed upon us in this life by a merciful Creator ; 

in the London Polytechnic Magazine, No. 2. by Dr. T. Stone. 
The facts therein stated are very instructive. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 57 

he would value it as a blessing sent to cheer and 
comfort him, when other and more customary 
means were failing to relieve him. He would 
turn to its use with prayer, with humble hope, 
with pious confidence ; he would feel that the 
issue was yet with God, and the divine will would 
be his own. He would not, like the impious 
king recorded in Scripture, forget the Lord, and 
seek only physicians. No: the great Physician 
of the cross, the healer of our leprosies, bodily and 
spiritual, would, after all, be his main and only 
refuge. To Him would he look at morning, at 
noontide, and at the evening hour. Yea, he would 
feel that it was good to be afflicted, if his afflic- 
tions and their earthly remedies made him better 
acquainted with his own heart, and brought him 
to a closer and more abiding communion with his 
Saviour and his God ! 

All, however, that I have been saying in the 
above pages, has been so much more happily ex- 
pressed in the following charming lines by that 
gifted poetess, Miss Anna Savage, that my readers 
cannot but thank me for introducing them to 
their notice. 

OX HEARING MESMERISM CALLED IMPIOUS. 

Call not the gift unholy ; 'tis a fair — a precious thing, 
That God hath granted to our hands for gentlest minist'ring. 
Did Mercy ever stoop to bless with dark unearthly spell ? 
Could impious power whisper peace the soul's deep throes to quell? 
Would Evil seek to work but good, — to lull the burning brain, 
\nd linger in some scene of woe, beside the bed of pain, — 



58 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

To throw upon the o'erfraught heart the blessing of repose, — 
Untiring watch the eye of care in healing slumber close, — 
And as the agony of grief fell 'neath the Spirit's will, 
O'er the wild billows of despair breathe tenderly — Be still ? 
Speak gently of the new-born gift, restrain the scoff and sneer, 
And think how much we may not learn is yet around us here; 
What paths there are where Faith must lead, that Knowledge 

cannot share, 
Though still we tread the devious way, and feel that Truth is 

there. 
Say, is the world so full of joy, — hath each so fair a lot, 
That we should scorn one bounteous gift, and scorning, use it not, 
Because the finite thought of man grasps not its hidden source ? 
Do we reject the stream, because we cannot track its course ? 
Hath Nature, then, no mystic law we seek in vain to scan ? 
Can man, the master-piece of God, trace the unerring plan 
That places o'er the restless sea the bounds it cannot pass ; 
That gives the fragrance to the flower, the " glory to the 

grass ? " 
Oh ! Life with all its fitful gleams hath sorrow for its dower, 
And with the wrung heart dwell the pang and many a weary 

hour : 
Hail, then, with gladness what may sooth the aching brain to 

rest; 
And call not impious that which brings a blessing and is blest. 
The gladden'd soul re-echoes praise where'er this power hath been ; 
And what in mercy God doth give, O "call not thou un- 
clean !"* 



* " God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common 
or unclean" Acts x. 28. 



59 



CHAP. III. 

UNBELIEVERS IN MESMERISM. AUTHOR'S OWN EXPERIENCE. 

REMARKABLE CASES. — MESMERISERS IN ENGLAND. — 

CURES AND OPERATIONS IN ENGLAND. — PROGRESS IN 

SCOTLAND IN GERMANY IN FRANCE IN UNITED 

STATES. MESMERISM PROVED TO BE A POWERFUL RE- 
MEDY IN PAIN AND DISEASE. 

But all this train of argument appears childish in 
the extreme to a second class of opponents. It 

eems like fighting with the wind. A medical 
friend^ who for his ability and various attainments 
in science stands by common consent among the 
leads of his profession, says in a letter, " It amuses 
me much to see two grave clergymen making a 
serious debate on the subject of Mesmerism." The 

editor of the Lancet says much the same thing ; 

6 We cannot but smile at each theologian for 

eriously attacking and seriously defending the 
practice." And a religious periodical has made a 

ew observations on the subject, which require 
some little notice. 

The Christian Observer* says, that they agree 



Christian Observer for September, 1 843, in notice of " Mes- 
nerism, the Gift of God." 



60 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

neither with Mr. M'Neile nor with his opponent, 
for they believe Mesmerism to be nothing else 
than the result of credulity or imposture. But 
we will put the charge in their own language. 
" We believe that the work is strictly human, 
being in part imposture for morbid vanity or sordid 
gain, and in part the irregular action of an excited 
imagination, &c." Dr. Elliotson was " duped by 
some artful patients, who pretended to respond tc 
his magical control. We calmly say duped" He 
" exhibited his deluded or deluding patients, suf- 
fering or affecting to suffer" * * * * "In some 
instances the patients and exhibitors may be con- 
federates; in others they may deceive the ex- 
hibitor ; but that there is deception upon the part 
of one or of both, we make no question." Hard 
words these, — if not somewhat coarse and unbe- 
coming ! It might have been expected that the 
editor of a religious publication would have known 
more of that evangelical virtue, which " believeth 
all things, and hopeth all things " favourably. 
" Charity never faileth." Charity always adopts 
the best interpretation. Such words as " dupe : 
and " imposture " are easily written, and save the 
writers unfortunately much laborious investiga- 
tion. My original purpose was to treat of the 
religious aspect of Mesmerism, — or rather to show, 
that its practice was not so unhallowed as the 
timid Christian might deem. But in the position 
in which I have been placed, — and w T ith the facts 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 61 

in my possession of which I have been a witness, 
such a narrow view of the subject appears to be 
inconsistent. And when a periodical of such de- 
served reputation as the Christian Observer can 
thus encourage its readers in their error by the 
most unjust aspersions ; when the leaders of the 
medical profession (for the larger part of the 
junior members are happily an exception) can ob- 
stinately persevere in terming this valuable dis- 
covery a delusion and an absurdity ; I should be 
wanting in my duty towards God, if I did not 
thankfully announce that which I have expe- 
rienced ; nay, I should be even wanting to my 
own character among my fellow-men, if I did not 
show that in thus advocating Mesmerism, I had 
reasonable grounds for my conviction, and spoke 
but the words of truth and soberness. 

It may be then desirable to state that I was an 
unbeliever in Mesmerism: perhaps it would be 
more correct to say, that I scarcely thought on 
the subject. A few years back I went to the 
Mesmeric exhibitions of the Baron Dupotet in 
TTigmore Street, and returned from them dis- 
gusted and incredulous : and from conversations 
that I subsequently held with medical men, I 
was led to resolve the whole appearances into 
" monotony," " imagination," and " nervousness." 
All this is stated, to show my previous state of 
mind. The change, then, that was wrought in 
me, — the change from scepticism or indifference 



62 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

to earnest conscientious conviction, was no sudden 
hasty impulse, but the result of cautious observa- 
tion, and slow and gradual in its growth. I was 
placed in such circumstances, that in my own 
despite, I was compelled to be present and witness 
facts. I watched them, however, with the most 
anxious jealousy. I trusted to my own eye-sight 
alone, and took nothing for granted. I have gone 
from case to case, and from one patient to another, 
and seen them all under different states of mind 
and body, and studied all the effects with the 
most unwearied diligence for months. And if 
plain common sense, untrammelled by the jargon 
of science, may be allowed to give an opinion, 
my conclusion from the whole is, that there is no 
one fact in nature more unquestionable, than that 
in certain conditions, hitherto unascertained, of 
the human body, one person is capable of pro- 
ducing a powerful action on the physical system of 
another, and that through some medium perfectly 
independent of the imagination of the recipient : 
and this position I propose to prove in the follow- 
ing statements. 

The patient, to whom I shall first refer, had 
been for many years in an anxious state of health. 
Palpitation of the heart, severe neuralgic pains, 
intense continuous headaches, had been a few of 
the more urgent symptoms ; and though she had 
enjoyed the benefits of the very first advice both 
in London and the country, and often with ad- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 63 

vantage, yet still the constitution had at length 
become so enfeebled as to be little equal to meet 
an additional shock upon the system. Let it be 
sufficient to state, that the worst symptoms of her 
case were at length fearfully exasperated. The 
most agonizing pains succeeded. For seven long 
and tedious weeks, sleep, which is " often the last 
to come when w T anted most," literally came not 
at all. Opiates not only failed to ease, but even 
tended to aggravate. Till at last, when a crisis 
was rapidly approaching ; when the hopes of the 
patient's family were almost gone; — at that mo- 
ment, when it was least expected, were their 
prayers heard; — a change was happily obtained; 
a new system of treatment was adopted; — and 
from that hour they saw the hand of God leading 
them on to health and to hope ; they saw a gradual 
steady progressive improvement setting in, at- 
tended by circumstances of relief, which no lan- 
guage can express. 

Mesmerism was that fresh treatment : but as a 
few facts will throw stronger light upon the action 
of this newly-discovered power, we will proceed 
to relate certain incidents in the case. 

First let it be stated that this was not a case of 
confidence, or where faith in a fresh remedy brings 
about a realization of its own wishes. The very 
opposite was the fact. The patient's disbelief in 
Mesmerism amounted even to dislike : and when 
the medical friend, but too much alive to the 



64 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

necessity of a few minutes' sleep after such a 
fearful duration of wakefulness, caught at the 
idea of the Mesmeric action, and suggested its 
adoption, the proposition met with a peremptory 
repulse. And it was only through the firmness 
and intelligent explanations of the excellent friend 
that undertook the treatment, that this strong 
reluctance was at last overborne. 

At the first seance, which lasted an hour, small 
apparent effect was produced; but on going to 
rest, the patient who had been in the habit of 
requiring the nightly aid of fomentations to lull 
the intolerable severity of her sufferings, lay per- 
fectly still, and said that " the pain had been en- 
durable." Sleep, indeed, did not visit the pillow : 
but much was thus far gained. 

At the few next sittings sleep was obtained, 

— deeper too on each occasion, — and the effect 
of which continued after the patient retired to 
bed. And though this sleep was very short and 
much disturbed, still there was sleep; an effect, 
which for weeks " all the drowsy syrups of the 
world n had failed to procure. The patient soon 
declared that she had passed a refreshing night. 
All this was very encouraging, and called forth 
many expressions of gratitude ; still nothing had 
hitherto occurred to convince me that the mo- 
notony of the passes was not the producing cause, 

— nothing, that is, of , an extraordinary or un- 
usual character ; sleep with a gradual mitigation 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 65 

of pain were the blessed results ; and we cc thanked 
God and took courage/' — and only trusted that 
this simple treatment would not lose its effect, as 
we went on. 

It was about the third or fourth evening, as I 
was sitting at a distant part of the room, silently 
watching the patient in her slumbers, that my 
attention was suddenly arrested, by observing her 
hand following the hand of the Mesmeriser, as by 
the force of attraction. Never shall I forget the 
feeling with which I started from my chair, eja- 
culating to myself, " there is then something in 
Mesmerism." A new light burst upon me. Here 
was a fact which no imagination could explain ; — 
here was a case where no collusion was possible. 
The act was marked, clear, decisive. In what 
way, the unbeliever can account for this sym- 
pathetic movement ; or into what solution it may 
be tortured, I know not. Common sense simply 
replies, that here is a plain evident action, in which 
the eye could not be deceived. This effect too, it 
may be as well to add, was not temporary, but 
was produced daily for weeks and weeks. The 
hand and the head invariably moved with the hand 
of the Mesmeriser ; and certainly in witnessing 
this magnetic action, we could not avoid adopt- 
ing the conclusion, that the term " Animal Mag- 
netism" was not so inappropriate. 

It is unnecessary to enter further into this case, 
though other phenomena might be mentioned, 
F 



66 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

except to add; that the most essential benefits con- 
tinued to be obtained ; and that although with a 
patient of such an impaired constitution, a complete 
restoration to health was not to be expected, the 
action of Mesmerism has never on any occasion 
been employed on her behalf (and this is said 
after the experience of twelve months) without 
producing a relief and salutary effect, such as 
medicine fails in any measure to accomplish. 

But my experience can give attestation to a 
very affecting case, — some of the events of which 
occurred under my own roof. 

Anne Vials is the daughter of Samuel Vials, 
of the Abbey parish in St. Alban's, who formerly 
drove the mail cart from thence to Watford. For 
a short time this poor girl gained her livelihood 
by working in a silk factory ; from the scrofulous 
habit of her constitution she was not always equal 
to full employment; — but, in 1837, when she 
was only sixteen years of age, — she was compelled 
to give up work altogether. For her mother fell 
sick, with a long and pining illness, under which, 
after much suffering, she finally sank ; and during 
which she was confined to her bed, and required 
the constant presence of a nurse. Poor Anne, 
therefore, left her calling at the factory, — took 
her place by her mother's couch, and was her 
unwearied attendant night and day. So feeble 
indeed was the patient, that she could scarcely be 
quitted for a moment ; and for a long year, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 67 

therefore, did this anxious and affectionate child 
sit by her parent's bed the whole night through. 
When death at length released the sufferer, a 
fatal discovery was made. The mother's disease 
had taken strong hold of the daughter, for the 
over-wrought exertions of a twelvemonth had 
now too clearly brought out the hereditary taint. 
Anne Vials in fact required a nurse herself; for 
not only was the general state of her health 
broken down, but the left arm, which for three 
or four years had been giving her much pain and 
uneasiness, became now in so diseased a condition, 
as totally to deprive her of its use. She was 
j)laced under the care of several medical men in 
succession ; the best attendance in St. Alban's was 
provided for her; but the arm every day grew 
more and more painful. Through the kindness of 
some charitable friends, she was now admitted 
into different hospitals one after the other. She 
was first removed to Hemel Hempstead Infirmary, 
— thence to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, 
where she remained nine months, — thence to St. 
Thomas's in the Borough, and thence to Hemel 
Hempstead again, in none of which places did she 
obtain any effectual benefit. The state of her 
health at length became so serious, that to save 
her life, some decisive measures were necessary ; 
and she was taken up to London again to Guy's 
Hospital, where her arm was amputated by Mr. 
Morgan, the 2 2d of March, 1841. 
F 2 



68 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

At the end of three months, when the wound 
was healed, she returned back to St. Alban's. 
After she had been at home some little time, a 
violent convulsive action commenced in the stump. 
This movement grew rapidly worse and worse. 
In fact, the stump moved up and down, night and 
day, unceasingly, — and much quicker, to use her 
own expression, than she herself could move the 
other arm. Her sufferings became intense, and her 
general health was affected in proportion. She 
was now removed backwards and forwards, as 
before, to the different hospitals, but without any 
relief. At the infirmary in Hemel Hempstead, 
they actually strapped the arm down with the 
hope of lessening the movement; but the con- 
finement made it, if possible, worse, and they were 
compelled to unloose it. She was at length carried 
to St. George's Hospital ; here she remained three 
months ; her health gradually getting worse and 
worse, and the epileptic fits, from which she had 
been suffering for a twelvemonth, increasing in 
violence and duration; — when with the only hope 
of saving her life, a proposition was mooted of 
taking the stump out of the socket. My readers 
may judge by this simple fact of the desperate 
state, to which this poor girl had now arrived ; 
for with her shattered health, it could hardly be 
expected that she should survive even for a short 
time so serious an operation. 

Fortunately for poor Anne, she had several 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 69 

benevolent friends, who, knowing all the circum- 
stances of her history, had watched the fearful 
progress of her sufferings from the first; and 
by subscriptions and various little Christian kind- 
nesses had done much towards lessening her load 
of sorrow : Mr. Basil Montagu, in particular, — 
that excellent man, whose long and useful life 
has been devoted to the benefit of his fellow- 
creatures, took the warmest interest in her fate ; 
— she often went to his house ; and there she re- 
ceived from Mrs. Montagu, that sympathy and 
consideration which woman alone is able to be- 
stow. One day the thought struck both these 
kind friends, that if any thing could be of service 
to Anne in this extremity of misery, it might be 
Mesmerism. It was but the faintest hope, for 
they had but slight knowledge or belief of its 
power ; — still they mentioned the case to their 
friend Mr. Atkinson, and suggested to him the 
idea of making a trial of what could be done. 

Mr. Atkinson is not a member of the medical 
profession, but has devoted himself to philosophy 
and science. His acquirements are of the very 
highest order. He is well known among the ad- 
vocates of Phrenology and Mesmerism ; in the 
former science he has added much to our stock of 
knowledge ; and in Mesmerism he is eminently 
successful. Whether in relieving deeply-seated 
pain, in arresting disease, or in subduing morbid 
excitement, his power is equally strange and 
F 3 



70 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

wondrous. He is so calm, so gentle, and yet so 
firm that it is a perfect study to watch him in the 
management of a case. — Hour after hour have I 
seen him with the most unwearied patience, de- 
voting the whole energies of his powerful mind to 
the amelioration of suffering, watching the va- 
rious symptoms as they arose, and undisturbed by 
any change that might occur. Never were phi- 
losophy and humanity more beautifully united. 
And in the instance before us, those who have 
the happiness of being ranked among his friends, 
require not to be told his answer to Mr. Mon- 
tagu's suggestion. In spite of the feeling against 
Mesmerism, and the almost hopeless state of the 
patient, he at once on his own responsibility un- 
dertook the case ; and seeing that it would require 
for months the most unremitting attention, he 
procured a nurse from St. George's Hospital, and 
had the poor girl removed to his own house. 

It was in May, 1842, about fourteen months 
after the amputation, that Anne Vials quitted the 
hospital to make trial of Mesmerism ; and this is 
Mr. Atkinson's description of the state in which 
he found her. " She had sometimes three or four 
fits in a day, of a most violent nature, which 
continued for more than an hour ; the stump moved 
up and down without cessation, not a merely 
nervous twitching, — but violently up and down ; 
she suffered continuous excruciating pain in the 
head and back, — and at the end of the stump 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 71 

too the pain was most excruciating ; — she had 
pain too in all her limbs and joints, particularly 
in the elbow of the remaining arm, just as she 
had before amputation in the other. Masses of 
sores were constantly breaking out in different 
parts of the body ; palpitations at the heart, pains 
in the chest, — suspensions of the functions of 
nature, and a spitting of large quantities of blood 
accompanied by solid matter, were some of the 
other symptoms." In short, a more terrible com- 
plication of evils have seldom been united in one 
sufferer. 

I shall leave it to Mr. Atkinson at some future 
period to give to the public the interesting details 
of his success. Let it be sufficient to state, that 
the process was most painfully laborious, and oc- 
cupying a large portion of his time, and that she 
remained in his house more than twelve months. 
At the first few sittings the epileptic fits were 
brought on, as if by the Mesmeric effect, — but 
this prevented their recurrence in her ordinary 
state. At the fourth or fifth seance, the deep 
sleep or trance was superinduced, — when the 
action of the stump suddenly stopped, — and from 
that moment it never moved in that way again ; 
— the fits too ceased ; the pains in the back of 
her head were almost immediately relieved ; — and 
a gradual improvement in her general health set 
in. Upon the wonderful results of the Mesmeric 
treatment in this case, I shall make little com- 
F 4 



72 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ment ; my readers can think for themselves ; — 
they will see here a poor girl, carried to and fro 
from hospital to hospital, enduring the most ex- 
quisite torture, and her life placed in such a state 
of jeopardy, that the only hope of preserving it was 
recourse to a second and horrible operation. The 
arm was to be taken out of the socket ! an ef- 
fectual mode in truth, for a prevention of its 
movement ! But from this operation was she 
spared by the action of Mesmerism ; and by its 
continued and regular application was a relapse 
prevented, and an improvement in her health ob- 
tained. Who does not see the goodness of Pro- 
vidence in vouchsafing such an agent? Who 
can deny that Mesmerism to her was the pre- 
cious gift of God ? The facts of her ease, — of 
her sufferings, — of the amputation, — of the 
movement of the stump, and of the other attendant 
evils are known to numbers, — to medical men in 
St. Alban's, — and to the surgeons and nurses at 
the hospitals ; and it is also known, that all the 
remedies suggested for her benefit were fruitless ; 
— the best surgical advice was of no avail : — but 
the fifth day, after the application of Mesmerism, 
the stump ceased to move, and the other fearful 
symptoms of the case began to disappear ! 

But these are not all the marvels that accom- 
panied the treatment. With the improvement of 
her health the most beautiful phenomena step by 
step developed themselves, — so beautiful indeed 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 73 

as to attract the admiration of a large number of 
inquiring spectators, who came to watch and 
study the case. She became what is called an 
ecstatic dreamer. Her nervous system had fallen 
into so peculiar and extremely excited a state, 
from the effects of this long and painful disease, 
that the Mesmeric action brought out an exalta- 
tion, and a great spiritual activity of the higher 
organs of the brain. And all these effects ap- 
peared spontaneously and unlooked for. Not only 
did she become a somnambulist, — i. e. not only 
were the common results of the sleep-waking state 
produced, — but an ecstacy, — a spirituality, — a 
rapt devotional feeling, such as appeared to draw 
a veil over the scenes of this lower world, regu- 
larly came on. To make myself understood, I 
will describe the effects as they occurred on my 
first visit. A few minutes sufficed to throw her 
into the trance by the simple application of the 
hand held over the head without contact. First, 
would there come a slight nervous action of the 
stump, which was suddenly arrested, — a peculiar 
movement of the eyelids followed, — the eyes 
closed, — and she fell back in a deep stupor. 
From this state she could not be aroused by any 
application whatsoever ; she appeared insensible 
to pain, and to the action of ammonia, or of lu- 
cifer matches burning under her nose. After the 
lapse of some minutes, she began to move un- 
easily, — when on being addressed by her Mes- 



74 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

meriser, she answered, and sat up in a sort oi] 
sleep-waking state, conversing freely, thougt 
unaware of the presence of strangers. Suddenly 
she fell back again into the stupor. In this shd 
remained a short time ; — when slowly rising from 
the recumbent position, and gradually lifting u[ 
her arm, and pointing as it were to heaven, she 
opened her eyes, looking upwards with the most] 
intense expression of adoration. The effect was 
truly sublime. It approached the character of 
what we may conceive of the devotional rapture 
of the seraph. Prayer, veneration, — an admira- 
tion of the unseen world, — a contemplation of 
the divine and the celestial, seemed to absorb 
every faculty of her soul. Her features, which 
in her natural state are most homely, were lighted 
up with a spirituality almost angelic. Though 
she is nothing but an ignorant factory girl, and 
accustomed to the most menial occupations, her 
gestures in this state were beautiful in the ex- 
treme. In short, so striking, — so extraordinary 
w T as the whole appearance of this poor one-armed 
girl in her dream, — such a combination was it of 
the graceful and of the sublime, — that even a 
Siddons might have made her attitudes a study 
for the Drama, and Raphael himself not disdained 
to borrow many a hint for the highest flights of 
his pencil. Domenichino's Sybille in the Palazzo 
Borghese at Rome may give some idea of the 
elevated beauty of her devotions. In fact, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 75 

cannot describe the effect better than by adding, 
that one of the spectators, whose name on matters 
of taste is of the very highest authority, after 
witnessing the scene walked from the house down 
several streets preserving the most profound si- 
lence; — and upon his companion at length in- 
quiring of what he was thinking, — " Thinking," 
he answered, " of what could I be thinking, than 
of what grovelling creatures we are, — while that 
poor girl seemed a being of another world ! " 

Of certain important conclusions, to w r hich this 
case gives confirmation, I shall speak by and by : 
at present my readers may doubt how far two or 
three visits to Mr. Atkinson's house entitle me to 
the character of a competent witness as to the 
reality of what I saw ; I shall proceed, therefore, 
to describe some future circumstances in this his- 
tory, in which I myself took part. 

After a patience, — a kindness, an expense, and 
a labour of no small duration, and such as few 
men would be willing to bestow, Mr. Atkinson 
brought this suffering girl to a state of compa- 
rative health and comfort : all the formidable 
symptoms had completely disappeared ; the nerv- 
ous movement of the arm was cured ; and there 
only remained at times a good deal of pain at the 
end of the stump, the effect probably of some- 
thing that took place during the amputation. 
Anne Vials therefore returned home to her native 
town ; and here we might have lost sight of her 



76 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

altogether. It so happened, however, that 
passed last summer in Hertfordshire. And 
vivid was the impression that the touching seen 
I had witnessed left upon my mind, that in on 
of our earliest drives into St. Alban's we deter- 
mined to find out our ecstatic dreamer. What] 
however, were our feelings on being directed t 
her dwelling ! When last we had seen poor Annel 
— she was the observed of all observers; — sur 
rounded by the scientific and the curious, ther( 
she was secure from want and toil ; and with al 
the freshness of restored health in daily commu 
nion with the seraphic beings of her ideal world 
What a contrast met our eyes ! We found hei 
in a miserable lodging in a back lane, with all th( 
usual accompaniments of poverty. Distress was 
marked on her countenance. She was neatly anc 
cleanly dressed, — but every thing else lookec 
bare and miserable. Toil had done its usua" 
work. A few weeks' necessary employment in 
seeking her daily food had brought back some ole 
and forgotten symptoms. The stump was caus 
ing her great suffering, particularly at the ex 
tremity : the right arm was again beginning to 
be painful above the elbow ; her health wai 
giving way ; and the expression of her features 
was indicative either of bodily or mental anxiety 
For her father had lost his situation and was 
unable to contribute to her support ; her Union, 
which piques itself upon the strictness of its 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 77 

rules, refused any out-door relief; and desirous 
of doing all that she could, and of keeping out of 
the workhouse, she strained her powers of exer- 
tion beyond what nature would allow. With 
but one arm, her choice of employment was li- 
mited ; and so she carried about the town a 
basket with goods for sale, the weight of which 
pressed too heavily on her nerves, and was bring- 
ing back her pains in the diseased parts. Had it 
not been for the assistance of some charitable 
friends, her case would have been pitiable in the 
extreme. We took her at once to the house I 
was occupying ; for I determined to try how far 
Mesmerism, with my inferior powers and expe- 
rience, would be able to check the relapse with 
which she was threatened. My pleasure, then, 
was great on perceiving all the usual phenomena 
successively presenting themselves. There was 
the fluttering of the eyelids, — the stupor, the 
insensibility to pain, the strange and fanciful col- 
loquy, the manifestations of the phrenological 
organism, and, lastly, the ecstatic dream, with 
all its varying appearances, — the rapture, the 
prayer, the uplifted eye, the extended arm, — the 
bended knee, and all the usual signs of the pro- 
foundest adoration. The difference that existed 
between the effects produced by Mr. Atkinson 
and myself was this, that with him the dream 
was of a far more elevated and beatific character ; 
with myself the cerebral responses to the touch 



78 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

were more pronounced and striking. However, 
the main thing to be noticed is, that the health oi 
the patient improved under our management ; • 
of course her freedom from daily toil was of no 
slight assistance ; still she was benefited by her 
Mesmeric sleep ; the pains in the head were re- 
moved, and those in the stump greatly lessened, 
and a countenance of health and serenity reap- 
peared. She stayed with us, backwards and for- 
wards, several weeks : we had the best oppor- 
tunity of judging her character ; and we found 
her an honest, well-conducted, right-principled 
girl ; and this opinion was confirmed by many in 
the neighbourhood who had known her long. 
But we did more than this : — we determined to 
sift the case to the bottom ; we determined to 
find out how much of truth there was in these 
startling phenomena. Undeniable as was the 
benefit to her bodily health by the action of 
Mesmerism, there were many who thought that 
the subsequent manifestations of the dream were 
all assumed from some interested motive ; and I 
will not conceal that some such suspicions did 
occasionally lurk in my own mind. But as 
Bacon says in one of his undying Essays, " There 
is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than 
to know little ; and therefore men should remedy 
suspicion by procuring to know more, and not to 
keep their suspicions in smother." We resolved, 
therefore, to probe the matter thoroughly. We had 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 79 

every facility for the work ; leisure and retirement 
were not wanting ; and we had no interest, more- 
over, in the decision one way or other. Fortunately 
our circle had been joined by a friend, whose 
varied talents and acquirements rendered him 
a competent judge on any philosophic question. 
Mr. Mitford's * inquiring mind was determined 
to be satisfied as to the truth of our so-called 
science. He assisted us, therefore, daily at each 
seance. In fact, he often took the principal part. 
In conjunction with my wife and myself, he 
tested the case in every possible way. Experi- 
ments of the most opposite kinds were adopted by 
him. It would be tedious to relate them; it is 
enough to say, that we repeated them over and 
over again, and were satisfied at the conclusion as 
to the only inference to be drawn. And what 
then was that result ? That not a shadow of a sus- 
picion even for a moment could remain as to the 
reality and truthfulness of what we saw ; that the 
poor girl was an honest unpretending person ; that 
the phenomena produced were far beyond her 
powers of acting either to assume or to sustain ; 
that the force of imagination could not explain 
them ; — that the supposition of hysteria or nerv- 
ousness was only solving one difficulty by another ; 



* My accomplished friend, the Rev. John Mitford, the learned 
editor of Gray, and the author of many delightful and popular 
works, is the last man to sacrifice his judgment to the love of a 
new and startling theory. Let it be sufficient to say, that, ori- 
ginally a sceptic in Mesmerism, he is now a firm believer. 



80 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

— and that, in short, the whole scene, strange and I 
pregnant with mighty truths as it appeared, — was I 
nothing else than the simple effect of this newly I 
discovered agent, the effect of the nervous system! 
of one human being acting on another. It is impos-l 
sible to say, how strong was the satisfaction wel 
all felt at the close of our inquiries into this most I 
curious case. It was an opportunity for searching] 
into truth that never might be offered to us a 
second time. And when the morning of our de- 
parture from the neighbourhood arrived, and poor I 
Anne with tears in her eyes attended us to the 
carriage, we took leave of her with feelings of I 
real regret, and drove away with many an anxious 
foreboding about her future fate.* 

* It ought to be mentioned in explanation of the circum- 
stances of distress under which we found Anne Vials, that her 
kind friends in London had gone to great expense on her behalf, 
as she was supported for some time through the benevolence of 
Mr. and Mrs, Basil Montagu, and subsequently by Mr. Atkin- 
son, during her residence under his roof; and when she returned 
to St. Alban's, they entertained the hope that her former cha- 
ritable neighbours in that place would not omit to renew their 
benevolent aid. But such was the strong opinion maintained by 
several in regard to the Satanic character of Mesmerism, that it 
produced an adverse feeling against the poor helpless girl. 
Others, too, disbelieving the powers of Mesmerism, were dis- 
posed to consider her in some measure an impostor, and assumed 
that her health, which had defied the skill of the ablest practi- 
tioners, had come round of itself. It was, therefore, to postpone 
to as late a day as possible her final reception into the workhouse, 
that the poor girl economised the alms which she had brought 
with her from London in as chary a way as possible. Among 
the friends, however, who remained firm to her, there is one who 
ought especially to be named. Mrs. Wilkin s, of the Verulam 
Arms Hotel, has acted towards her with all the kindness of the 
good Samaritan. When staying in that neighbourhood, too, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 81 

But there is an interesting trait connected with 
the above story that must not be forgotten. It 
was in one of his annual pilgrimages to the shrine 
of the great father of inductive philosophy, that 
Mr. Basil Montagu, the admirer and follower of 
Bacon, — he who had written his life and published 
his works, first became acquainted with this suf- 
fering creature. Often would he ramble towards 
old St. Michael's Church, and visit the grave of 
that greatest of England's chancellors, — often 
would he traverse the ruins at Gorhambury, and 
press the hallowed soil that Bacon loved to tread. 
And never did he return from these his beloved 
haunts, but, Antaeus like, he rose from the contact 
of that kindred earth, with a freshened impulse 
and ardour for the discovery of truth. The spirit 
of the master breathed on the disciple. The very 
genius of the place followed him to his dwelling. 
Of Mesmerism he knew but little : but if Mesme- 
rism were true, it could only be established by 
the inductions of inquiry. Truth by experiment, 
— truth by careful and untiring observation, — 
truth, however vilified and ridiculed by the scio- 



Mr. Mitford kindly set on foot a little subscription, which was 
most charitably responded to by some of the most influential 
families in the vicinity. I lately had a letter from Mrs. Wilkins 
(Feb. 22d, 1844), saying that the poor girl had been very ill 
again, but was now something better. 

It ought to be added, however, that though she has often been 
subject to attacks of illness, and to great pain in her arm, the 
convulsive movement of the stump, and the violent epileptic fits, 
have never returned. 



82 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

list, — was always to be searched for ; and when 
could this truth be obtained with greater propriety 
than in the case of an unhappy sufferer, who 
dwelt within the precincts of that very ground, 
sacred to the memory of that vast genius, whose 
mind had been so impressed with the importance 
of inquiring into the nature of the living body. 
For Bacon himself, considering the knowledge of 
man to man the most important of all knowledge, 
had written on " experiments touching the emis- 
sion of immateriate virtues from the minds and 
spirits of men, either by affections or by imagina- 
tions, or by other impressions." He seems to 
have anticipated somewhat of the Mesmeric dis- 
covery, when he says that it " certainly is agree- 
able to reason that there are some light effluxions 
from spirit to spirit, when men are in presence one 
with another, as well as from body to body" He 
says that there is " a sympathy of individuals, so 
that there should remain a transmission of virtue 
from the one to the other." " But," he adds, 
cc we have set it down as a law to ourselves to 
examine things to the bottom, and not to receive 
upon credit, or reject upon improbabilities, until 
there hath passed a due examination." " Much," 
he says again, "will be left to experience and 
probation, whereunto indications cannot fully 
reach." * And it was in accordance with these 
great principles of inductive philosophy by ex- 

* See Bacon's " Natural History," Century x. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 83 

periinent, that the venerable Basil Montagu, 
whilst almost wholly ignorant of the power of 
Mesmerism, yet finding that the skill of the first 
medical men in London could avail nothing, 
thought that something might possibly be effected 
in the case of this poor sufferer, — and at all 
events that here was a fit subject for a trial. 
And how glorious was the result ! what a triumph 
in science ! What a forcible proof of the reality 
of the power of this newly-discovered principle 
in the nature of man ! — And what virtuous mind 
shall not rejoice at such a discovery, — or deny 
that Mesmerism is indeed the gift of an all-wise 
and merciful God 1 

But I was also witness to a third case of Mes- 
merism, that occurred in my house last summer, 
— which is interesting, not only from the benefits 
that resulted to the party mesmerised, but also 
from the corroboration which it gives to the truth 
of a similar event, of which the newspapers have 
been lately full. I allude to the case of the sleep- 
ing boy at Deptford. James Cooke was there 
thrown into the mesmeric trance by his master's 
son, and remained in that state for so long a 
period, that one party collected round the house 
with fearful apprehensions at the dangerous con- 
dition into which he was plunged ; — while a 
surgeon, from his apparent ignorance of physiology, 
deems the thing impossible, and writes a letter to 
the newspapers, pronouncing the whole a delusion. 
G 2 



84 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

The sleep, as we have since learnt from the best 
authority, was neither assumed nor alarming ; and 
I am able to confirm the probability of the nar- 
rative, from the almost similar circumstances that 
took place in my own household. A maid-servant 
of the age of eighteen, — of a pallid complexion, 
and in delicate health, came to live with us in 
Hertfordshire, her mother being in hopes that 
country air might have a bracing effect on her 
constitution. But no such result was produced : 
she remained weak and languid and unequal to 
any exertion. One day Anne Vials mesmerised 
her ; and the next morning she expressed herself 
as much benefited by its effect. This induced a 
friend, who was staying with us, to repeat the 
experiment. And the result was so deep and 
prolonged a sleep, that his endeavours to awaken 
her were for many hours unsuccessful ; we tried 
every plan we had seen adopted in similar cases, 
and referred to different works on the subject, — 
but in vain. This state of somnambulism lasted 
for nineteen hours, at the end of which she 
awoke and was perfectly ignorant of all that oc- 
curred during her sleep. It may be as well to 
state for the benefit of the sceptic, that this young 
girl was artless and inexperienced, and perfectly 
unequal to acting any part, or to resist the various 
plans pursued by ourselves and her fellow-servants 
to rouse her from her slumbers. It was an in- 
teresting sight, with which some anxiety was 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 85 

mingled, owing to her delicate constitution. But 
I have the satisfaction of stating that within a 
few days afterwards the beneficial results surpassed 
all our expectations ; the bloom of health returned 
to her cheeks, — the blood seemed to be circulating 
through her veins, her whole system was renovated, 
and she became lively and active. In short, so 
great was the alteration in her appearance, that 
on her return to London a few weeks afterwards, 
her mother, surprised and delighted, exclaimed, 
" Matilda, you are changed indeed, — I should not 
have known you ! " 

Here then are three remarkable cases. And 
what is the reply of the unbeliever? That the 
writer is a prejudiced, incredible witness ? For I 
pass by as unworthy of notice the common charge 
of deception and "morbid vanity," with simply 
demanding, what reason I could have for uphold- 
ing Mesmerism except conviction of its truth? 
But I am an incompetent testimony, — it is meant ; 
I have received no diploma from the College of 
Surgeons, and know nothing of the action of 
hysteria and of nervousness. There is a homely 
proverb which will admirably apply to these rea- 
soners, — " An ounce of mother- wit is worth a 
pound of clergy." A little practical common sense 
is all that is necessary : and it is possible for an 
educated man, — even though he may not have 
received a medical degree, — to form a legitimate 
opinion of the appearances of Mesmerism, after a 
G 3 



86 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

daily observation for several months. But setting 
all this aside, — and for the sake of argument ad- 
mitting myself to be in error and the above a 
delusion, are these three cases isolated ones ? Is 
my experience a rare instance ? Is nothing else 
producible ? At this moment, hundreds and hun- 
dreds of cases, out of England alone, can be 
brought forward. A mass of evidence quite 
astonishing is in my possession. Cures and relief 
effected in an infinite diversity of diseases can be 
named. Not that it is pretended that Mesmerism 
is a universal specific. There are many disorders, 
which it does not seem to touch. There are many 
patients to whom it does not seem to be of use. 
Still a host of cases can be produced, in which a 
service, beyond all expression valuable, has been 
wrought ; in which pain of the most intense agony 
has been removed ; in which long chronic diseases 
have been subdued ; in which sudden attacks have 
been mastered ; — cases, too, in which medical men 
have been at fault, or which they had pronounced 
incurable and hopeless. In the metropolis alone a 
considerable number of Mesmerisers can be named. 
There is hardly a county in England, where it is 
not now practised. From York to the Isle of 
Wight, — from Dover to Plymouth, there can be 
produced a chain of evidence and a list of cures. 
Our Mesmerisers are not ignorant practitioners ; 
■ — not hot-headed cracked-brained enthusiasts, but 
men whose standing in society is a guarantee for 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 87 

the correctness of their information, — temperate, 
slow-judging, careful thinkers, and as little likely 
to be led astray by a false light as their opponents 
themselves. Clergymen, military men, barristers, 
physicians, surgeons, ladies high in rank, and 
men of a distinguished position in the world 
could all be named : their practice of the art is 
well-known in their respective circles ; and by 
many I have been favoured with information 
that is surprising and interesting in the highest 
degree. The details of their respective success are 
so copious that they would fill a thick volume. Of 
course, I am precluded by the brief nature of this 
little work from doing more than glancing at 
their leading points. If I selected a few cases 
for insertion, the choice would be most perplex- 
ing ; and if I began, I should not know where to 
stop. They can only, therefore, be noticed in the 
most cursory manner. But even with this limited 
allusion, and with the addition of the names of 
some who have previously appeared before the 
public, but of whom many of my readers may not 
have heard, I shall be able to produce, what the 
lawyers would call such a mass of cumulative 
evidence, as nothing but the scepticism of science 
could prevent men from admitting to be at least 
a startling and important phenomenon. 

Mr. Atkinson, then, of whom mention has been 
made before, has been eminently successful in his 
treatment of numerous diseases, some of which 
G 4 



88 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

too generally defy all human skill. He has ac- 
complished three cures in that most fearful of 
maladies, tic doloreux : one case was of ten years* 
standing ; and the other two of several years' 
duration. He has cured several cases of fits, of 
hysteria and want of sleep, and of those deter- 
mined nervous and sick headaches, which seldom 
yield to remedial action. He has been successful 
in various acute nervous pains and contractions 
of the limbs, in asthma, fever, long-standing 
cough, affections of the heart and spine, injured 
sight, and deafness, in melancholia, rheumatism, 
toothache, indigestion, and different functional 
obstructions. He has found Mesmerism effica- 
cious to a most valuable extent in subduing cere- 
bral excitement. He had a patient under his 
treatment, whose irritability of brain was becom- 
ing a source of much anxiety. By the application 
of Mesmerism every day for a fortnight all the 
formidable symptoms disappeared ; the head be- 
came cool ; the paroxysms ceased ; and the func- 
tions of the brain were restored to a calm and 
healthy state. The efficacy of Mesmerism in 
maladies of this description is almost incredible. 
Its soothing influence has so speedy an effect. 
Mr. Atkinson has indeed such copious and in- 
valuable information to communicate, that the 
public have reason to hope that one day he may 
place the results of his experience before them. 
Captain John James of Dover has great ex- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 89 

perience in the practice, and has contributed much 
towards its full appreciation. His patients have 
been numerous. He has found Mesmerism most 
efficacious in nervous disorders ; — and in several 
other complaints, he has greatly alleviated the 
sufferings of his patients. 

The late Mr. Chenevix, a well-known name in 
the literary world, the author of a beautiful article 
in the Edinburgh Review on " France and Eng- 
land," and a man of considerable scientific attain- 
ments, as his communications in the Philosophical 
Transactions show, was preparing a work to de- 
monstrate the results of his experiments and ob- 
servations on 442 persons, when an acute disease 
suddenly terminated his own existence. In the 
course of six months he once mesmerised 164 
persons, of " whom 98 manifested undeniable 
effects. There was hardly one instance where 
disease existed, that relief was not procured." 
His efforts were immense ; and his success pro- 
portionate. To mention a few instances, — he 
cured a case of epilepsy and spasmodic pain of 
six years' standing in twenty-one sittings. He 
succeeded completely in three other cases of the 
same disease, and procured immense relief in 
eight. He cured a man far advanced in a rapid 
consumption. He cured seven cases of worms ; 
and produced a most powerful effect on some men 
in the Coldstream Guards. He was of service, 
also, to several inmates in Wakefield Lunatic 



90 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Asylum. The reader is referred for further in- 
formation respecting this lamented man to the 
first number of the Zo'ist. 

The cases reported by the Reverend Chauncy 
Townshend in his philosophical work, called, 
" Facts in Mesmerism," are remarkable from the 
answer they afford to the common opinion, that 
the effects of Mesmerism are limited to a few 
nervous and fanciful persons, chiefly of the weaker 
sex. While he has adopted Mesmerism exten- 
sively in cases of sickness, he mentions that when 
he first took it up, " out of twenty-three individuals, 
in whom he induced sleepwaking, more or less per- 
fectly, six only were tvomen, one only a decided 
invalid." He gives the account of seven or eight 
young men "in perfect health," — "in good and 
robust health," who were mesmerised by him. 
His description of his power over some sceptics 
at Cambridge is so curious and convincing, that 
it should be read by every candid inquirer. In 
respect to Mesmerism as a curative agent, he says 
himself, after much experience, " its capacity to 
serve either as a calmant or stimulant, according 
to the exigencies of the complaint, would alone 
give it the highest rank as a remedy. In this 
point of view, how valuable appear its offices, how 
unmatched by those of any substance in the Ma- 
teria Medica." " Of all remedies, this alone 
pours its benefits direct upon the very springs of 
sensation." " In cases of deafness and blindness, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS* 91 

which depend on nervous weakness, we possess a 
subtle means of acting efficiently upon the foun- 
tain-head of the calamity." Though ''insulated 
cases of benefit" he adds, "might seem suspicious, 
benefits on so large a scale must finally vanquish 
distrust." And he concludes his notice to the 
second edition of his work, " with a deep regret 
that prejudice should yet stand in the way of so 
much alleviation of human suffering as it is cal- 
culated to afford, and with a humble hope that 
truth and time will lead to a discreet and grateful 
use of this wonderful gift to man." 

Colonel Sir Thomas Wiltshire, commanding at 
Chatham, has practised Mesmerism extensively, 
and with great success. It is no new thing to 
see the gallant profession of arms lending the 
warmest aid to the cause of humanity ; and many 
military men, with a zeal and benevolence that 
reflects the highest honour upon them, have taken 
up our science. To Sir Thomas Wiltshire, in 
particular, occupying as he does so distinguished 
a position, the highest admiration is due ; — and 
while very many interesting particulars could be 
related by him, one is so striking, that it cannot 
be too often laid before the public. 

A nursery servant, who had been for a long 
time suffering pain, in her upper jaw, of a most 
excruciating kind, was compelled to undergo a 
severe operation on its account. The pain was 
so intense, that she could scarcely bear a touch on 



92 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

the part affected. Sir T. Wiltshire put her into 
the Mesmeric trance, and the surgeon commenced 
the operation. It lasted more than five minutes. 
She did not feel it the least Not a muscle or 
nerve either twitched or moved. When Sir 
Thomas awoke her, she was not conscious of 
having gone through the operation. 

It should be added that the sympathy of taste 
was developed in this case. When Sir Thomas 
took wine, the patient said she tasted it. The same 
experiment was tried with biscuit, and she " tasted 
biscuit." And though she felt not the pain of 
the operation, when Captain Valiant pinched Sir 
Thomas's hand, she immediately felt it, and said 
she did not like it. 

Among other cases, Sir Thomas Willshire has 
cured a servant, named Catharine Cocks, of a 
pulmonary complaint, with which she had been 
very ill and affected for years. She is now per- 
fectly restored to health and strength, and is " ro- 
bust and well ;" " though the medical gentleman, 
who had attended her for some years, had, pre- 
viously to the Mesmeric operation, assured her 
parents that she could not survive the ensuing 
winter." 

Earl Stanhope, whose philanthropy and Chris- 
tian kindness are so universally known and ad- 
mired, is a practiser of the science. This excellent 
nobleman is not deterred by popular prejudice, or 
by the ridicule which some newspapers have en- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 93 

deavoured to cast upon him for his zeal in the 
cause, — from appearing as the advocate of truth. 
In a letter, of which he has permitted me to make 
use, the noble lord mentions several cases, in 
which he had been of signal service to some of 
his sick and poorer neighbours, In particular, he 
gives the case of a young man, aged twenty-seven, 
who had been obliged to give up his place on ac- 
count of a nervous affection, which produced 
syncope, upon every trifling excitement. After 
being mesmerised a few times, he was perfectly 
cared. Another was the case of a young woman, 
aged twenty-two, the daughter of a day-labourer, 
who was afflicted with such violent epileptic fits, 
that she also was obliged to retire from service. 
After a treatment of a short duration, she was 
pronounced quite well, and returned to her situ- 
ation with her former master. Other very inter- 
esting particulars could be added, if the limits of 
this work allowed it. 

Miss Wallace, a most benevolent lady in 
Cheltenham, whose exertions are unremitting in 
everything that can be of service to the cause of 
humanity, can give the strongest attestation to 
the truth of the Mesmeric power. She has 
had several most extraordinary cases under her 
management. She has cured two cases of decline, 
— the only two of the kind that she has at- 
tempted. She has cured sciatica, — the most violent 
cramps, epilepsy, head-aches, tooth-aches, ear- 



94 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

aches, — and some without sleep being induced. 
Several of her other cases are very remarkable ; 
and I hardly know any one more able to give 
valuable evidence and information connected with 
the science, than this amiable and active-minded 
friend of truth. 

Several other ladies and gentlemen in Chelten- 
ham and the neighbourhood have been for some 
time practising the art ; and could speak in the 
strongest way of its beneficial effect with their 
patients. 

Captain Valiant, of Ghatham, who a short time 
ago was a " thorough sceptic/' as he called him- 
self, is now a most powerful and successful Mes- 
meriser. Numerous cases could be related in 
which he has relieved pain, reduced swellings, and 
obtained a complete cure. His power seems 
unusually great. He writes, " I have myself 
mesmerised many persons of both sexes, and have 
seen others succeed with a great many more. I 
have also, in many cases, without putting the 
patient to sleep, removed head-aches, tooth-aches, 
sore-throats, and several other pains, not only in 
women, but strong men, merely by manipulating 
the parts affected." Space is wanting for an 
insertion of some interesting facts connected with 
a few of his patients : but the attention of the 
reader is invited to the following : " In my 
practice of Mesmerism, I have met two curious 
cases which perhaps may be worth mentioning. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 95 

In both of these my subjects were powerful men, 
brother captains in the army, whom I had re- 
peatedly tried to mesmerise, but could only succeed 
in closing their eyes, without being able to put 
them to sleep, so that they could not possibly open 
them, till I de-mesmerised, them. I could close 
their eyes in about two minutes, even by giving 
them a glass of magnetised water. I had also the 
power of catalepsing the limbs of one of them by 
making passes over them." Captain Valiant's 
testimony, like that of Mr. Townshend's, is a most 
valuable answer to those who think that Mesmer- 
ism applies only to patients that are " highly 
nervous and hysterical." 

Mr. Baldock of Chatham can bear most use- 
ful testimony to the curative powers of Mesme- 
rism. " Several cases," he says, " have presented 
themselves to him, in which relief has been given 
to the parties." In palpitations of the heart and 
severe head-aches he has been very successful. 
One of his cures is so remarkable, that I shall 
give the particulars. It is that of Robert Flood, 
now residing at Caistor in Lincolnshire. Mr. 
Flood had for several years suffered most severely 
from disease in one of his kidneys. He had been 
under the care of different medical men, — and 
had been placed in a London hospital. His pains 
were so acute, that he could not leave his bed, 
until the day was advanced; — and even then it 
was necessary for him to recline several times 



96 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

before retiring for the night. He had been ir 
this state for several years. Mr. Baldock was the 
happy instrument of restoring him to health, aftei 
a Mesmeric treatment of three months. This 
poor fellow, great part of whose time was spenl 
in bed from pain and weakness, is " now in sucl 
robust health that he can throw a quoit." Mr, 
Baldock has several other most valuable instances! 
of cure and relief: and as he keeps a journal oi 
his Mesmeric proceedings, we may hope thai 
these interesting particulars will be placed more 
fully before us. 

Mr. Majendie, of Clarges House, at Byde, ir 
the Isle of Wight, has practised Mesmerism foi 
the last two years with great advantage to the- 
health of several persons. He says in a letter. 
u I have seen much of the curative effects of Mes- 
merism." Several of his cases are most instruc- 
tive. Invalids, who had been incapable of any 
exertion or labour, through a deranged system, 
have been cured or restored to comparative health, 
One of the facts, that he mentions, is so corrobo- 
rative of the electrical theory of Animal-Magne- 
tism, that it deserves to be recorded. " Without 
the slightest suggestion or prompting, the patient 
said, that she saw the sparks of fire pass from the 
points of my fingers into the water which I mag- 
netised for her." This same phenomenon has been 
observed by other somnambulist patients. Mr, 
Majendie has given great attention to the subject 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 97 

of Mesmerism; and his opinion on all matters 
connected with it is of much value. 

Besides Mr. Majendie, several other parties, 
ladies as well as gentlemen, have taken up the 
practice in the Isle of Wight: and some very 
curious facts, illustrative of the power, and of the 
curative effects of Mesmerism, might be collected 
in that quarter. 

Mr. Topham, of the Temple, whose services in 
the well-known case of poor Womb ell were so 
invaluable, and of whom, therefore, the Chirur- 
gical Society seem to entertain a professional 
jealousy, has much experience in the practice. It 
may be useful to record one of his cases ; that of 
a young man, aged 18, who, for four years and 
a half, had been subject to epileptic fits, — at 
least three a week, and each of two hours' dura- 
tion. He suffered also from incessant pains in 
his head. Upon being mesmerised, the pains 
immediately ceased altogether; his natural sleep 
became sound and regular : and he had two fits 
only in the space of three months. The Mesme- 
ric treatment was unavoidably discontinued in 
this case — before the case became perfected; but 
the change in the young man's health is some- 
thing quite remarkable. 

Mr. Thompson of Fairfield House, near York, 
is a very successful Mesmeriser. After much 
experience, he speaks in the strongest way of the 
utility of the science, and of the benefit that may 

H 



98 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

be derived from it. He is often able to remove 
acute pain without producing sleep. He says 
that he has tested this repeatedly " with almost 
invariable success ; mitigating, and very often 
altogether removing toothache, headache, rheu- 
matic pains, and pains occasioned by contusions, 
burns, and any inflammation ; " — and in some few 
cases of a severe or acute character he has been 
able to afford great relief. 

One of his cases is such a beautiful illustration 
of the power of Mesmerism, that I regret my 
inability, from want of space, to give the full 
particulars. It is that of John Bradley, a boy 
near York, — aged nine years, who had suffered 
for fifteen months from a diseased knee, — evi- 
dently of a scrofulous character. When Mr. 
Thompson first saw him, " the child had been suf- 
fering intense agony, — was unable to rest day or 
night, had a total want of appetite ; — there was 
great inflammation extending above the knee ; — 
the knee was enormously enlarged, and it was 
evident that extensive suppuration had taken 
place in the inside of the knee." " The child was 
in a high state of fever, a deep hectic flush was 
on his cheeks, attended with quickness of breath- 
ing and a short cough." Mr. Thompson deter- 
mined to try the " experiment of making passes 
over the knee for half an hour. Before the time 
had nearly expired, the child became calm and 
still, then began to smile, and said he felt a ivarm 



MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 99 

heat come out of Mr. Thompson's fingers, which 
had taken away the pain. He seemed a little 
drowsy, but no sleep w r as produced." After a 
certain period of treatment, the child's health 
rapidly improved, — the inflammation of the knee 
subsided, absorption of the matter took place, and 
in a month he was able to put his toe to the 
ground. After many other particulars, Mr. 
Thompson adds, " that it was in May that I 
commenced mesmerising him ; by the latter end 
of August the recovery was as complete, as I 
thought it possible for a knee, so deformed from 
long-standing disease, could be." He has great 
use of the limb ; is able to walk about very well, 
— suffers not the slightest pain or inconvenience, 
— and his health is very good. One fact is too 
curious to be omitted. "During the process of 
recovery, he never but once went to sleep under the 
operation of Mesmerism." 

Here is another valuable proof of the remedial 
power of Mesmerism in Mr. Thompson's hands. 
A gentleman who had been suffering for nine con- 
secutive days from severe rheumatic fever, with 
acute pain in the shoulders, arms, hands, loins, 
legs and knees ; with the fever excessive ; pro- 
fuse night sweats caused by the agony of pain, — 
and loss of sleep and of appetite, placed himself 
under the management of Mr. Thompson. These 
are his own words : " In less than twenty minutes 
you had nearly charmed away all the pain and 
H 2 



100 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

restored warmth and feeling to my feet. You then 
put me to sleep : the delightful sensation of that 
sleep, after such extreme pain, I can scarcely de- 
scribe. When you awakened me, I felt like 
another person. The fever was reduced : and 
the pain was gone. In four days I was down 
stairs : every time you mesmerised me, I felt as 
it were new life. 

Mr. Thompson gives a description of three cures 
of severe and long-standing neuralgic pains of the 
head. One of the parties had been under the 
first medical advice in London ; " had a great 
horror of Mesmerism, without any faith in its 
curing her." One day, when much worse than 
usual, she ashed for its application : in less than 
ten minutes she was relieved ; and awoke up en- 
tirely free from pain ; and her general health has 
been very good ever since. 

Captain Anderson, of the Royal Marines, who 
is resident at Chelmsford, — is another very 
powerful Mesmeriser. His last case is so very 
striking an instance of the merciful power of 
Mesmerism that I shall give it somewhat in de- 
tail. Mrs. Raymond, a lady residing at Chelms- 
ford, had suffered for nine years from a spinal 
complaint, — being confined to her sofa, and un- 
able to be moved day and night; she had also 
lost the use of her voice. Her sufferings were 
dreadful. Blisters, caustic plasters, leeches, setons, 
medicines of all descriptions, were tried in sue- 



MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 101 

cession, without any substantial good. These are 
her own words : " During the nine years I was 
unable to be moved from my sofa night or day ; 
I was never free from pain ; sometimes the agony 
was indescribable: the three last years I have 
been entirely speechless. I had given up all hope 
of recovery and almost prayed for death." " At 
the very time that I had resigned myself to my 
fate, and begged that my sufferings might soon 
be ended, God in his great mercy made me ac- 
quainted with Captain Anderson, who offered to 
try the effect of Mesmerism." " I laughed at the 
idea ; but from his account of the cures he had 
performed, I complied, — being anxious to grasp 
at any thing which would do me good." Without 
following out the details, this is the result. u I 
am now able to walk out daily alone and un- 
assisted. I am regaining my speech; — and I 
am free from pain, sleep soundly, and take 
no medicine, and am now seldom mesmerised." 
Well may this excellent lady, when comparing 
" her past sufferings with her present happiness," 
say that she " feels thankful to God and grate- 
ful to Captain Anderson." For here is a case, 
which alone would be able to substantiate the 
healing virtues of this blessed gift. 

Dr. Engledue of Portsea practises Mesmerism 

in his profession, and is a warm advocate in its 

cause. Whoever has studied the fine intellectual 

forehead of Dr. Engledue, and watched his clear 

H 3 



102 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

eye, and calm thoughtful countenance, must ac- 
knowledge, that there stands a philosopher in the 
truest acceptation of the word, and one little likely 
to be led astray by the unreal fancies of a heated 
imagination. 

"Wr. Weekes, a surgeon at Sandwich, has " for 
two years devoted a large portion of his time and 
attention to the great remedial powers proceeding 
from the judicious application of Mesmerism ; " — 
and for this independent and noble-minded con- 
duct, he has been, of course, traduced by the ig- 
norant and the malevolent. He has, however, 
the satisfaction of knowing, that the alleviation of 
pain and the removal of disease, under the Mes- 
meric treatment, and through his management, 
has been considerable. His professional success 
has been great. With him, Mesmerism has proved 
of use, " after the usual modes of treatment, and, 
in some instances, abundance of quackery to 
boot, had utterly failed, and rendered the case 
more inveterate and distressing." Among the cases 
that he mentions are some of "dyspepsia, habi- 
tual and obstinate constipation, paralysis, sluggish 
condition of the hepatic system, and hypochon- 
driasis, muscular contractions, stubborn and other- 
wise hopeless cases of chronic rheumatism, local 
pains, and several severe forms of neuralgia, cases 
of general languor and debility without manifest 
cause, as also a case of deafness, — the removal 
of two teeth without the knowledge of the pa- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 103 

tient, besides several affections of an anomalous 
character.' Mr. Weekes is proceeding firmly and 
actively: his name ranks high with all parties; 
and he is reaping an abundant reward. 

Mr. Gardiner of Portsmouth is a powerful sup- 
porter of the truth of Mesmerism. He gives a 
valuable account of the extraction of two teeth, 
attended by most painful circumstances, without 
the consciousness of the party. " During the 
whole of this trying operation not a groan or 
complaint escaped the patient." Other severe 
operations have been performed by him " without 
any manifestation of feeling" on the part of the 
patient. 

Mr. Prideaux of Southampton is another great 
practical Mesmeriser. He reports three remark- 
able cases of the cure of St. Vitus's dance, — in 
which the "twitchings" diminished perceptibly 
from day to day, under Mesmeric treatment. 
From five different patients he has extracted teeth 
without their consciousness. His description of 
their demeanour under this usually painful opera- 
tion is most curious. " The patient sat with the 
hands quietly folded in the lap, — the countenance 
was placid and serene, — and the whole attitude 
that of repose." " The insensibility was perfect" 
of the three other patients. The fifth " allowed 
me to operate for two hours with the most passive 
indifference" Mr. Prideaux, himself a medical 
man, says of one of his patients, " a case more 
H 4 



104 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

conclusive of the power of Mesmerism as a remedial 
agent in the cure of disease, it would be difficult 
to conceive." " If imagination/' says he again, 
" can work such wonders, she should be placed at 
the head of the Materia Medica." With many 
such enlightened practitioners as Mr. Prideaux, 
the well-attested facts of Mesmerism will soon 
force their way on the mind of the public. 

Mr. Janson of Pennsylvania Park, near Exeter, 
the President of the Exeter Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society, and a gentleman well known in 
that part of the world among scientific men, is 
also a Mesmeriser, and can bear his valuable tes- 
timony to the therapeutic virtues of the science. 

Mr. Kiste, a most intelligent gentleman from 
Germany, and who has been resident some little 
time in Plymouth, has devoted much of his atten- 
tion to the science. Among the cases in which 
he has found it efficacious, one alone can be par- 
ticularly mentioned, which by itself would confirm 
the unspeakable value of Mesmerism. It was a 
severe case of spasmodic asthma. The patient 
had been subject to it for twelve years. She says 
herself, that such were her sufferings, that for 
" many days she was obliged to sit with a pillow 
on her lap to support her stomach." " The pa- 
roxysms were so violent that she was obliged to 
sit on the floor for four-and-twenty hours at a 
time." " To describe half my sufferings when 
the spasmodic breathing came on, is impossible." 



MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 105 

She had been attended by eight or nine medical 
men in succession. Cupping, blistering, hot baths, 
were tried, but without any important effect. In 
short, her own description of the periodical pains 
which returned every fortnight, — of their severity, 
and of other attendant evils, is painful to read. 
A clergyman, well acquainted with her family, 
now writes to the Mesmeriser, and says, " It is 
now at this moment (Jan. 29.) nine weeks since 
she was subjected to the Mesmeric influence, and 
she has been entirely free from asthma, her general 
health is improved, and she is gaining flesh." I 
shall not enter into the further details of this very 
striking and interesting case ; as we have reason 
to hope that Mr. Kiste will himself shortly bring 
them before the public. 

Mr. Holm of Highgate, — who, in a most phi- 
lanthropic manner, devotes much of his time to 
the benefit of his fellow-creatures, has found Mes- 
merism a most efficacious remedy. He has ob- 
tained some very remarkable cures. He generally 
has a large number of Mesmeric patients under 
his management. He tells me, that he has proved 
Mesmerism to be most valuable in epilepsy, rheu- 
matism, brain fever, diarrhoea, headaches, and 
many neuralgic disorders. Mr. Holm has large 
experience in phrenology, and has tested with 
great success its connection with vital magnetism. 

Mr. Charles Childs of Bungay u was very much 
indisposed to receive the phenomena of Mesmerism 



106 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

as facts/' — "but he was constrained to admit 
their reality, unless he would deny the evidence 
of his own senses." He says, " I have practised 
Mesmerism above four years ; in this period, I 
have proved its unquestionably beneficial results on 
several of the most afflictive maladies" In cor- 
roboration of the above, I can state, that I called 
on the mother of one of Mr. Childs's patients, and 
heard from her own mouth the details of a very 
remarkable cure of a child that had been frightened 
in a fearful manner. Every other remedy, but 
Mesmerism, seemed to fail in this case. Mr. 
Childs generally has about four patients at a time 
under his hands. Much attention has been 
awakened in his neighbourhood by the following 
operations. I quote from the very able letter 
which Mr. Webb, the operating surgeon, addressed 
to the editor of « The Medical Times." Mr. Webb 
says, that he does " not come forward to support 
the theory of any man. He desires only, as an 
unprejudiced observer, to record facts which he 
had himself tested." The cases are these : " Two 
young women, Mesmeric patients of Mr. Childs, 
who had suffered from toothache for some time 
past, consented to have their teeth extracted while 
in Mesmeric somnolency, but were not apprised 
of the time at which this was to be done. That 
they might have no reason to suspect what was 
about to take place, I was not sent for until Mr. 
Childs had put them into the Mesmeric condition, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 107 

when I went and extracted for one a very trouble- 
some stump, and for the other, a double tooth in 
the upper jaw. I am morally certain that no 
means were employed to produce this state of 
unconsciousness except the Mesmeric." * * * * 
"After a short time they were awakened, and 
were both wholly unconscious of all that had taken 
place." " Nor was this all ; for neither at the 
time when they were awakened, nor on the fol- 
lowing day, did they experience either pain in the 
jaw or tenderness in the gum." Evidence, like 
this, coming from the surgeon himself, has a two- 
fold strength. 

A similar operation took place at Hinckley in 
Leicestershire, last June, upon a young man, 
named Paul. The tooth was extracted during the 
Mesmeric sleep, without consciousness. Paul 
told a correspondent of mine, that " he did not 
feel any pain whatever." 

Mr. Mcholles of Bruton Street has extracted 
two or three teeth from patients in the Mesmeric 
;leep, without their knowledge. In his last case, 
he says, " The pulse was 108 under the Mesmeric 
influence, and rose a little during the operation. 
On being awakened, she expressed the most lively 
gratitude and delight at having lost her trouble- 
some companion." 

Another striking case of this kind was the 
extraction of a tooth from W. Gill, at Edin- 
burgh, without pain, on May 1. 1843, by Mr. 



108 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Nasmyth, Surgeon-Dentist to the Queen. Se- 
veral medical gentlemen were present. Mr. Craig 
was the Mesmeriser. Gill had no feeling, when 
the tooth was being extracted, — but after he was 
awakened, he felt a soreness and pain in the 
gums. 

Mr. Carstairs of Sheffield, who practises Mes- 
merism, has extracted teeth from parties who 
were not aware of the operation. He has also 
performed several minor operations, such as open- 
ing an abscess and dressing the wound ; cutting a 
large wart from a patient's hand; — inserting a 
seton, without the parties feeling the slightest 
pain or suffering any inconvenience. ■ — Other me- 
dical men in Sheffield have employed Mesmerism 
as a medical auxiliary, and could bear testimony 
to its usefulness. 

Mr. Chandler, a surgeon of Rotherhithe, has 
much experience of the beneficial effects of Mes- 
merism. Among other cases, he has had one of 
insanity, in which his Mesmeric power was in- 
valuable. He " produced a cure, rapid and perfect, 
when bleeding and powerful medicines, and me- 
dicines given powerfully and perseveringly, had 
all been unavailing." 

Mr. Purland of Mortimer Street, Cavendish 
Square, offers an honourable instance of the tri- 
umph of truth over prejudice and preconceived 
opinions. I met Mr. Purland last July at the 
house of a friend: his opinions against the ex- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 109 

istence of Mesmerism as a fact were most de- 
cisive ; I had much conversation with him, — but 
did not shake him in the least. He consented, 
however, to witness some Mesmeric experiments ; 
— and after giving them a due and patient inves- 
tigation, he became a convert, and is now a 
valuable ally, — and has practised the art with 
great success. He has cured his father in a 
dreadful and most distressing malady, in a case 
where no relief was procured from medicine. He 
has cured cases of asthma, hysteria, lameness, and 
deafness. At various times he has relieved pa- 
tients of headache, toothache, pains in the chest, 
&c. He calls Mesmerism, in a letter I lately 
received from him, " a science of much import- 
ance;" and this from a gentleman, who a few 
months back was a determined sceptic ! Such, 
however, is the force of truth, where straight- 
forward and honourable intentions go hand in 
hand with the inquiry. 

Mr. Boyton, a surgeon of Watlington, in Ox- 
fordshire, is another honourable example of a 
manly independence of mind. His acknowledged 
reputation in his profession gives value to what 
he states. He has cured a severe case of fits ; 
and another serious case of injury, accompanied 
by much pain, and general ill health. He says, 
" I do not mean to recommend the indiscriminate 
use of this agent in every case, nor substitute it 
for acknowledged remedies. But in some cases I 



110 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

should not hesitate to employ it ; it strengthens 
the nervous system, improves the digestion, and 
tranquillizes the mind? This is most important 
testimony. 

Dr. Wilson of the Middlesex Hospital is so 
well known by his publications on the subject to 
be a firm supporter of the truths of Mesmerism, 
that it is only needful to allude to his name. 
Some readers may, however, be interested in 
learning, that Dr. Wilson has cured a case of 
insanity, or intense melancholy, by the aid of 
Mesmerism. 

Mr. Mulholland of Walsall is a most earnest 
and successful Mesmerist. He has reduced a wen 
of eleven years' standing, and of the size of a 
goose's egg, so completely, that it requires acute 
observation to detect it. 

Mr. Stenson of Northampton is another valu- 
able supporter of the cause. He has cured cases 
of fits, — melancholia, &c. &c. He says that he 
looks forward with well-grounded hope to Mes- 
merism being more generally applied as a curative 
means. 

Mr. Summers of Chatham has acted success- 
fully upon a case of obstinate hernia by Mesmer- 
ism. 

Dr. Cryer of Bradford states a case where a 
young girl, named Louisa Taylor, who had lost 
the use of her arm and leg by paralysis, was ma- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. Ill 

terially benefited by the Mesmeric treatment of 
Mr. Prest of that town. 

Mr. Brindley of Stourbridge has cured vari- 
ous diseases by this power : an affection of the 
heart, of seven years' standing ; a case of general 
debility of the nervous system ; and several cases 
of fits and rheumatic pains, &c. &c. 

Mr. Tubbs of Upwell Isle, in Cambridgeshire, 
has proved the reality and efficacy of Mesmerism 
in the treatment of many diseases. Delirium from 
grief, muscular pain, chronic rheumatism, and 
several other cases could be named, where he 
found the Mesmeric treatment most successful. 
This earnest friend to the cause of humanity has 
found Mesmerism most efficacious in several oper- 
ations, — in the extraction of teeth, &c. : — Mr. 
Tubbs has, at this moment, some most interesting 
patients under his care. 

Mr. Donovan, the able phrenologist of King 
William Street, Strand, can give very valuable 
testimony as to the powers and virtues of our 
science. 

In Wolverhampton Mesmerism is making vast 
strides in popular estimation. Dr. Owens of Stour- 
bridge, a medical gentleman, lately made many 
converts, by the following operation : " A young 
woman, suffering dreadfully from toothache, was 
thrown into the Mesmeric sleep, for the purpose 
of having the tooth extracted. A sceptical dentist 
happened to be present and undertook the ope- 



112 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ration. There was much difficulty in the case. 
The key slipped from the tooth twice; and a 
splinter, nearly an inch and a half in length, was 
broken from the alveolar portion of the jaw. Still 
there was not the slightest manifestation of pain ; 
and the patient, on being brought to herself, L*3 
not the slightest idea that the operation had been 
performed. The dentist said, that " there was 
no more movement than there would have been in 
a corpse" About eighty persons were present. 

Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, who is so well known 
in the political world, and was such a staunch 
unbeliever in the science, is now " satisfied of its 
truth, and has since mesmerised many hundred 
persons." 

The names of numerous other Mesmerisers 
might be mentioned, — who could all bear testi- 
mony to the curative power of the art; Arnon^ 
them are Mr. Vernon, who was so disgracefully 
treated by the medical gentlemen of Greenwich ; 
— Mr. Bailey, — Mr. Spencer Hall, — Mr. Hart 
of Rochester, — Dr. Collyer, Mr. Dove, and many 
others. 

In Scotland Mesmerism has taken a firm root. 
Its remedial power has been tested over and 
over again. And Mr. Lang's useful little work on 
" Mesmerism, with a Report of Cases developed 
in Scotland," should be read by every person 
solicitous of the truth. 

Dr. Elliotson's eminent success in the practice I 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 113 

is too well known to require notice. All, who 
really seek for valuable information on this head 
should consult his Papers in the Zoi'st. They 
will there see the cases reported in detail, — and 
enriched by medical observations of the highest 
, alue. Let it be sufficient to state that he has 
cured cases of insanity, — cases of St. Vitus's 
dance, of palsy, of loss of voice, — of deafness and 
dumbness, of epilectic and other fits ; — cases 
where every other medical treatment had utterly 
failed. The increasing circulation of the Zo'ist has 
placed these wonderful facts so completely within 
the reach of the medical student, that this brief 
allusion to them is no otherwise necessary than to 
make our list of leading Mesmerisers complete. 

Here, then, is a train of witnesses in favour of 
our science ! Here is a succession of evidence 
from men of ability, — of education, of honour- 
able standing in society, from whose report alone, 
the existence of Mesmerism as a fact in nature 
might be confidently predicated! And this list 
might have been swelled to any extent ! What 
an amount, moreover, have we here of happiness 
conferred ! What a mass of misery, of pain, of 
sickness, of sorrow lightened or removed ! Here 
at length are a few pleasing pages in the long sad 
chapter of human life ! Here, at last, is a de- 
lightful study for the philanthropist and the 
Christian ! And all these blessings communicated 
by means of a power that is derided, or dreaded, 
I 



114 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

or disbelieved ! We have confined our testimony 
to what has occurred in this country alone and 
within the last few years, — but what a pile of 
narratives could have been added to it, if the 
limits of a humble work like this would have al- 
owed it. It might have been added, that on the 
Continent Mesmerism has been received as a fact 
(un fait accompli) for years : that in Germany it 
is studied and practised to a considerable extent ; 
that in Prussia many physicians make use of it 
under the authority of government ; and that in 
Berlin in particular the greatest success has at- 
tended its use ; — that in Stockholm degrees are 
granted in the university by an examination on 
its laws ; that in Russia, the Emperor appointed 
a commission of medical men to inquire into it, 
and that this commission pronounced it " a very 
important agent," — that the first physician of the 
emperor, and many others at Petersburgh, speak 
in favour of its utility; and that at Moscow a 
systematic course of treatment under the highest 
auspices has been employed for years. In Den- 
mark, physicians practise it under a royal ordi- 
nance and by a decree of the College of Health. 
In Holland, some of the first men take it up. In 
France, the extent to which it is practised is con- 
siderable indeed. I have it from good authority 
that in Paris every fourth medical man is a Mes- 
merist. A commission of the Royal Academy of 
Medicine there recommended that Mesmerism 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 115 

should be allowed a place within the circle of the 
medical sciences (comme moyen therapeutique 
devrait trouver sa place dans le cadre des connais- 
sances medicales). Some of the first physicians in 
Paris affixed their signatures to this report. I 
might mention the cases related by Foissac in his 
Report * : I might give extracts without number 
on the subject from different French and German 
works. I might quote from De Leuze, Puysegur, 
Wienholt, Treviranus, Brandis of Copenhagen, 
&c. usque ad nauseam. The great name of Hufe- 
land of Berlin is a host in itself. 

I have a curious little French work by me, 
called "La Verite du Magnetisme prouvee par 
les Faits, 5 ' in which the list of cures effected by a 
lady in Paris is quite marvellous. In the United 
tates the same mighty progress has been made. 
Mr. Buckingham, the distinguished traveller, told 
me, that it is there practised to a very great ex- 
tent. In his amusing work on that country he 
mentions several curious Mesmeric cases and phe- 
nomena that he witnessed in Philadelphia, at the 
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, tried upon child- 
ren in the presence of several physicians and legal 
gentlemen, when it appeared proved beyond sus- 
picion, to the satisfaction of all present, that 
" there was a complete suspension of the suscepti- 
bility of pain during the state" of Mesmerism. 

* Rapports sur le Magnetisme Animal, par M. P. Foissac, 
Docteur en 3Iedecine. 

I 2 



116 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Dr. Mitchell, an eminent physician of Philadel-j 
phia, mentioned an operation performed by hir 
in the extraction of a tooth under most painful] 
circumstances, when no feeling was experienced,! 
— and no recollection of the fact existed after- 
wards.* And who and what are the men thatl 
have thus advocated Mesmerism ? I shall answer| 
in the words of the celebrated French physi- 
ologist, Dr. Georget, — who says, — "It is a very I 
astonishing thing that animal magnetism is not 
even known by name among the ignorant classes : 
it is among the enlightened ranks that it finds sup- 
port It is men who have received some edu- 
cation who have taken its cause in hand : it is 
partly learned men, naturalists, physicians, phi- 
losophers, who have composed the numerous vo- 
lumes in its favour." f And what is the reply of 
our opponents to this pyramid of facts ? That 
they are all cases of delusion ? Granted, for the 
sake of argument, that very many might be so, — 
that in several instances the ablest men might be 
deceived : what then ? still even with the largest 
deduction under this head, what an accumulation 
of evidence would yet remain ! As Mr. Col- 
quhoun observes, " Upon what evidence are we 
permitted to believe any series of facts ? What 
amount of proof is required ?" The host of com- 
petent and highly qualified men, who have nar- 

* Buckingham's *« America," vol. ii. p. 119 — 125. 
j- Apud " Isis Revelata," vol. ii. p. 45. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 117 

rated their experience, forbid the supposition of a 
universal delusion. Some other theory must be 
adopted. Mesmerism is a science of facts. To 
facts we appeal: and we do not believe, as has 
been well observed, that " any science rests upon 
experiments more numerous, more positive, or 
more easily ascertained." * 

To facts, then, it is repeated, do we appeal. 
What the nature of those facts is, it is superfluous 
to mention. I presume that most of my readers 
have a general notion respecting them ; that they 
are aware, how that after certain manipulations a 
deep sleep comes on ; — how that this is followed 
by the phenomena of attraction, of sympathy, 
of insensibility, of phreno-magnetism, and other 
singular manifestations, all varying with various 
sleepers ; and how, that when the patient is 
awakened, a sanative or soothing effect is generally 
experienced. To the higher order of phenomena, 
such as clairvoyance, internal vision, and so forth, 
I have made little allusion. Not that I disbelieve, 



* " II a ete etabli en France, et dans presque tous les pays du 
nord, des traitemens magnetiques, ou des milliers de malades ont 
trouve la sante. La relation detaillee d'un grand nombre de 
guerisons a ete publiee, soit par les particuliers, soit par les so- 
cietes de l'harmonie." — Foissac, Rapports, p. 500. 

This was said by Foissac, a medical man himself, more than 
ten years ago, — in 1833, before the practice of Mesmerism was 
much known in England. If Foissac could say in 1833 that 
there were thousands of sick persons who had received benefit 
from the art, what might he not state now ? This, let it be 
remem' er^d, is the main question ; that the number of successful 
cases proves the pov/er. 

I 3 



118 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

or have not witnessed something of them. Bui 
this work aims strictly at a practical character, 
have no wish to astonish or amuse. Those won-| 
drous facts of clairvoyance, which cause the fait! 
of so many to hesitate, have no necessary bearingl 
on the therapeutic qualities of Mesmerism. They! 
might all be false, and yet the healing virtues of I 
the magnetic slumber remain unquestioned. At| 
the same time, it may not be useless to mention, 
that there is not one single phenomenon of the I 
higher order of Mesmerism, which has not been 
found to exist in a natural state and spontane- 
ously, in some recorded cases of extremely-diseased 
individuals. The annals of natural somnambulism 
are full of them. Mesmerism simply brings out 
in the process of cure and by artificial means, 
what nature throws forth in the action of disease. 
Take the staggering fact of reading with the eyes 
' closed, through, what I believe, an electric com- 
munication. This has occurred in a natural state. 
The report is to be found in the 38 th volume 
of the French Encyclopaedia, on the authority 
of the then Archbishop of Bordeaux. It was the 
case of a young ecclesiastic, who walked in his 
sleep, — took pen, ink, and paper, and composed 
and wrote his sermons, and read, with his eyes 
closed. To test him, the archbishop held a piece 
of pasteboard before his face to prevent his seeing, 
— but he appeared to see equally well. Now we 
repeat, that this case had no connection with Mes- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 119 

inerism, — that it is quite independent of it, — that 
it occurred spontaneously and in a natural state, 
and is established on as high authority as any 
single fact in science. It was simply the effect of 
a morbid action on the nervous system of the 
young man. — And so of all the other strange 
phenomena of Mesmerism; there is not one of 
them but has its parallel in some instance of com- 
mon somnambulism : and I know no study that 
would so w r ell prepare the mind of the student for 
a due apprehension of this question, as a perusal 
of the marvellous facts that have been recorded in 
the histories of many natural sleepwalkers. — How- 
ever, a further allusion to these singular manifes- 
tations is foreign to our purpose. My object is 
wholly utilitarian. And my endeavour has been 
to prove by a copious body of statistics, that there 
is a state into which the human frame can be 
placed, from whence the most powerfully remedial 
results may be obtained, even in cases of ex- 
tremest suffering. 



I 4 



120 



CHAP. IV. 

ARGUMENTS AGAINST TRUTH OF MESMERISM. MONOTONY. I 

HYSTERIA. IMITATION. — FAITH. IMAGINATION. 1 

"MESMERISE ME, AND I WILL BELIEVE YOU." FIRST I 

FRENCH REPORT. SECOND FRENCH REPORT OF MEDICAL I 

MEN ALONE. MR. WAKLEY. LONDON UNIVERSITY. 

BRITISH ASSOCIATION AND MR. BRAID. ROYAL MEDICAL 

AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY. GREAT NAMES AMONG BE- 
LIEVERS IN MESMERISM. 

And what is the reply of certain medical men, 
who presume ex cathedra to give an opinion on 
the subject without condescending to look into 
it, — what, we demand, is their reply to the re- 
presentation of this state ? Simply, that it is 
impossible ; the thing, they say, is in itself im- 
possible ; — and consequently that no farther 
investigation is requisite for the student. To say 
that facts are extraordinary, — are difficult to con- 
ceive, — are contrary to previous experience, is but 
the duty of a philosopher, who should suspend his 
belief, till every reasonable doubt be done away. 
But to begin with asserting, that a thing is im- 
possible, — and that it is contrary to the laws of 
nature, because it differs from our early opinions, 
is irrational in the extreme, and eminently absurd 
in days like our own, when every year we see 
things accomplished, which in our youth were 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 121 

deemed impracticable. The real question is, — what 
are the laws of nature ? Are they all known and 
established? But inasmuch as to set limits in this 
way to the operations of nature, and call a thing 
which is occurring every hour " impossible," is not 
quite satisfactory to the philosophic inquirer, a 
few ingenious theories are propounded by the 
faculty to silence the unreasonable questionings of 
the " impertinently curious." 

One gentleman will tell you, that " Monotony" 
is the secret. The constant movement of the 
hands before the face*, — a continued friction by 
passes down the arm, has, they say, such a dull 
deadening effect, that the mere monotony of the 
action induces somnolency. All this is granted : 
many a restless invalid has been lulled into 
slumber by some such a soothing process. The 
tickling of a feather, or the reading of a dull book 
in a drowsy tone for a prolonged period, will often 
persuade to sleep. But this explanation will not 
meet the difficulty. It applies but to a few 
isolated instances. And first we ask, how many 
times would this experiment answer in the case 
of a feverish patient ? For days ? for weeks ? 
for months ? A daily repetition of the trial would, 
I fear, soon break the charm. Not so with Mes- 



* M To the waving motion of the hands, in what are termed the 
' passes,' I attribute all the phenomena which animal magnetism 
is said to induce in patients who submit to this mummery " — 
Unity of Disease, by Dr. Dickson, p. 91. 



122 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

merism. The mesmeric sleep is obtained only the! 
more easily and more quickly at each renewal of I 
the process. But with some patients, these mo- 
notonous movements, made by parties unskilled I 
in Mesmerism, not only do not soothe, but have 
even an irritating effect ; — to whom, however, 
the Mesmeric action, applied in a judicious way, 
succeeds at once. I can speak to this point from 
my own experience. But this is not all. Many 
Mesmerisers scarcely use monotonous movements 
at all. The mutual contact of the thumbs, the 
application of the points of the fingers near the 
eyes, the pressure of the hand upon the crown of 
the head, are the plans that I have seen most 
usually adopted, and which I have found most 
successful myself. Often and often have I seen 
patients in a state of cerebral excitement put to 
sleep in two, in three, in four minutes, by the 
contact of the balls of the thumbs. A lady has 
told me that oftimes from the moment her thumb 
touched the thumb of the Mesmeriser, a leaden 
weight has settled on her eyelids, making resist- 
ance to sleep impossible, — and this in a case 
where every other soporific method had been 
worse than idle. No : monotony will not explain 
the difficulty. In fact, so little has monotony to 
do with the effect, that none but those who have 
seen little or nothing of Mesmeric action could 
invent this theory for its solution. 

Driven from this post, our opponents next 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 123 



Istablish themselves behind the entrenchments 
f u hysteria" This is the explanation, that is 
for ever being advanced in anti-mesmeric works 
and lectures at the hospitals ; and I think it more 
especially worthy of answer, as I have heard it 
made by some able and enlightened friends. The 
patient, they say, is "highly nervous and ex- 
citable ; it is simply an hysteric action, — nothing 
else." Now there is much plausibility in this 
representation. Its vagueness catches the ear. 
The undefined character of the word " nervous- 
ness" includes almost every thing in common 
parlance. Merely say, that a patient is nervous, 
and all difficulties are removed. But we must 
pin our philosophic friends down to something 
more specific. These loose generalities carry no 
meaning in them. And first we would observe, 
that it is not nervous patients, who are always 
the most susceptible to Mesmeric action. The 
idea is convenient ; but the fact is often the 
reverse. Stout strong-minded men have been 
mesmerised ; and I have seen patients who were 
termed " highly nervous " resist the influence 
altogether. But let us analyse this explanation 
more closely. What is hysteria ? Is it hysteria, 
when a pin is forced into a delicate female's hand, 
far enough to draw blood, and she feels no pain, 
and exhibits no change of expression ? Is it 
hysteria, when a brute strikes a sleeping boy a 
violent blow with a walking-stick, and no move- 



124 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ment or consciousness results from it? Is it 
hysteria, where excitement and strong cerebral 
irritation are soothed and calmed down into tran- 
quillity and repose? Is it hysteria, when in- 
tolerable heat and throbbing in the head are 
carried off and leave not a vestige ? Is it hysteria, 
when racking torturing pain is relieved or com- 
pletely taken away? And all these effects not 
happening once and accidentally, but over and 
over, and over again ? According to common ex- 
perience, these effects would rather result from 
hysteric action than be removed by it ; and cer- 
tainly it is a novel doctrine, when we are taught, 
that an abatement in feverish or cerebral irri- 
tability is the product of hysteria. However, ■ 
it is now said, that all these states are the effect 
of hysteria. Hysteria includes every thing. 
Whatever may be the condition of the human 
body, — be it unusual repose or unusual excite- 
ment, — be it exquisite sensibility to pain, or an 
utter unconsciousness of its presence, hysteria is 
the cause. Be it so. And how much nearer are 
we now towards resolving the difficulty ? For 
again I ask, what is hysteria? Do the medical 
men know themselves ? Can they explain it ? 
Can they say what are its causes, proximate or 
remote ? Are they not confessedly in the dark 
on the subject? To explain Mesmerism, there- 
fore, by hysteria, is but to exchange one difficulty 
for another. It is tut a shifting of position, not 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 125 

an approximation towards the truth. It is a 
moving of the feet, not a marching forwards. 
With far greater judgment did one of the most 
superior and rising members of the profession 
observe to me, that " Mesmerism, if true, rather 
threw a light on hysteria, than hysteria on 
Mesmerism." It would rather lead them, he 
said, to a solution of their very difficulties on that 
question. But be this as it may, to explain one 
difficulty by another is a most unphilosophical 
proceeding, — and one through w^hich no ap- 
proach whatever is made to an illustration of the 
truth. But on the other hand, if Mesmeric 
action be nothing but hysteria, — as perhaps it 
is, — then we assert, that hysteria, when pro- 
duced artificially and intentionally, ceases to be a 
disease, — but becomes a condition full of medi- 
cinal and healing virtue, — as the inexhaustible 
catalogue of cures accomplished by its power in- 
controvertibly proves. 

" Imitation " is a favourite explanation with 
others ; — and certainly imitation is a key which 
interprets many facts in the science. Imitation 
is one of the most powerful agents for working on 
the human mind ; — much that is good or wicked 
in human conduct is the result of imitation alone; — 
and it may be a curious study for the physiologist 
to trace the secret springs of imitation to their 
native source. But though imitation may explain 
many parts in the conduct of a Mesmeric patient, 



126 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

— it goes but a small way. How can we explaii 
this fact, that young and artless girls, — the deaf] 
the dumb, — the blind, — patients who had nevei 
heard of Mesmerism, — who knew not what pro- 
cess was going to take place, have all equally 
exhibited the same class of phenomena ? Imita- 
tion is often used too for a synonym of Impostur 
But when employed in this sense, it assumes that 
the capabilities of the human mind are great in- 
deed, and that the histrionic talent is far more 
common than is suspected. The lovers of the 
drama complain that the days of tragic and comic 
excellence are departed, and that not an actor re- 
mains to tread the stage. Unfounded regret ! If 
the charges of our opponents be correct, and im- 
itation (or imposture) be the clue to Mesmerism, 
then indeed actors and actresses of the highest 
talent abound in every district, — artists, before 
whom the genius of a Garrick would grow pale, 
are making the circuit of the country in every 
direction, — and the art of Roscius is now at its 
zenith. I have seen ignorant, uneducated, simple 
persons transformed by the touch of the Mes- 
meriser into the most finished performers. Yes, 

— if imitation (or imposture) be the solution, then 
is a greater wonder established than the supposed 
discoveries of Mesmer, — and the histrionic powers 
of the human mind proved to be something be- 
yond the range of old experience. Either way, 
" the laws of nature " must be remodelled ; — old 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 127 

systems are not sufficient ; for mentally or physi- 
cally, a new and wondrous power has been detected, 
— which henceforward must find a place amidst 
the schemes and divisions of the philosopher and 
metaphysician. 

Faith or confidence in the power, and a desire to 
be healed by the process of Mesmerism are again 
suggested by others as a cause to which we may 
ascribe some of the cures of which we have 
?poken. On this theory, how are we to explain 
those instances, where the patient had a positive 
aversion to the practice; where, so far from the 
existence of faith, disgust and disbelief were the 
strong predominant feelings ; — and where the re- 
medy was adopted almost by compulsion, and yet 
the cure and the benefits have been most marked 
and unequivocal ? Here I can again come forward 
with my testimony. 

Again, therefore, is a fresh interpretation needed, 
and all is resolved by another party into the large, 
the comprehensive phrase of " Imagination." Truly 
has it been observed, that this reference of all these 
difficulties to the influence of imagination is but 
" a cloak to cover ignorance." That imagination 
has a most powerful effect on the habit of the body, 
we all know. Numerous striking events can be 
clearly traced to it. Several wonderful cures have 
been produced by it. It is a valuable, a useful 
auxiliary. Xone but an idiot would deny its 
power. Still, imagination, with all its vehement 



128 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

effects, has a limit. There is a time when its in- 
fluence wears off. An invalid often " imagines " 
that a new medical adviser has been of service, - 
that a change of medicine has done good, — that a 
different treatment has been beneficial; and re- 
peatedly has a healthier action been brought about 
by this power of the mind upon the nervous sys- 
tem. But much too generally the spell is dissolved 
at an early day. Before the tedious week shall 
have run its round, a relapse has occurred, and the 
benefit is forgotten. Not so, again we say, with 
Mesmerism. The longer it is tried, the more 
powerful is the hold. A patient may be sent to 
sleep by imagination two or three days in succes- 
sion ; but would the same method succeed day 
after day for several months ? Here is a point on 
which I can speak with confidence. The process, 
which was comparatively feeble in its effect upon 
a patient in my family during the first week is 
now, at nearly the expiration of a year, more effi- 
cacious than ever. Look again to its influence on 
pain. We hear at times of pain disappearing sud- 
denly through some operation of the mind. An 
individual, suffering from a raging toothache, has 
been known to walk to a dentist's door, when the 
simple ringing of the bell has so wrought on his 
system as to stop the pain and change the condition 
of his body. But who believes that this power of 
the mind would be continuous ? Who supposes 
that the daily experiment of a walk to the opera- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 129 

tor's house would suspend the agony, if the pain 
recurred every morning ? The unlucky tooth 
would in the end require extraction. Not so with 
Mesmerism. Pain is removed only the more 
speedily by a repetition of the manipulations. The 
oftener they are tried, the quicker are their effects. 
This notion of " imagination " will not therefore 
get rid of the difficulty. It is a convenient mode 
of explanation, and a courteous ; when, in reality, 
the insolent charge of fraud is really meant, and is 
the only alternative. Either certain facts are true, 
or they are false ; for the mind has nothing to do 
with them. Is it imagination, when the hand of 
the sleeper follows the hand of the mesmeriser? 
Is it imagination, when the touch of any one but 
the mesmeriser throws the sleeper into extreme 
and convulsive agitation ? Is it imagination, when 
the sleeper hears no other voice but that of the 
mesmeriser? Is it imagination, when what the 
mesmeriser tastes is recognised by the sleeper, be 
it bitter or sweet, or water or wine ? These 
questions might be multiplied indefinitely; but 
here are sufficient : and what is the answer? We 
reply, that there is a physical impossibility that 
the mind, according to what we understand by 
that term, should have any thing to do with such 
effects, The sleeper is fast asleep, and knows no- 
thing of them. Either they are the result of some 
newly discovered power on the nervous system, or 

K 



130 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

patients, as honourable and virtuous as the op- 
ponents themselves, are assuming an appearance 
for which they have no earthly inducement. "Im- 
agination/' in the usual acceptation of the word, 
can afford no explanation to these phenomena in 
any way whatever. 

A few other facts may be stated on this point. 
Children are often easily magnetised. Foissac 
mentions the case of a child, aged twenty-eight 
months, that he placed in somnambulism. Deaf 
and dumb persons, and some that were blind, have 
been thrown into this sleep, without being aware 
at the time of what was intended or what was 
going on. Animals have been powerfully affected. 
Dr. Wilson's experiments on the brute creation 
are most conclusive. Several sceptics, and those 
men of powerful intellect, have been mesmerised. 
Mr. Townshend, in his " Facts," gives some re- 
markable instances of what took place at Cam- 
bridge with some unbelieving adversaries. Pro- 
fessor Agassiz, of Neufchatel, in Switzerland, was 
put to sleep by Mr. Townshend, according to his 
own statement, after he had done every thing in 
his power to resist the influence. But there is 
one point more decisive than any which we have 
just mentioned, — and which, as Colquhoun states, 
is well known to all practical rnesmerisers, — viz. 
"that if we attempt to manipulate in contrary 
directions, the usual effects will not be produced, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 131 

•whilst others of a totally different nature will be 
manifested." In short, of all the explanations 
that have been offered, the least tenable is that of 
" imagination." Still, what is in a name ? If 
the phrase be more acceptable than that of Mes- 
merism, let it be adopted. All we ask and want 
is, that the system itself be not neglected. " If 
imagination," says Mr. Chenevix, " can cure dis- 
eases, then cure by imagination, and the sick will 
bless you." We have no wish to supersede the 
labours of the faculty in their important depart- 
ment : what is rather desired is, that the treat- 
ment of the mesmeric process should be under 
their direction and control, — as is the case in many 
countries on the Continent. In Russia, in Den- 
mark, in Prussia, none but medical men or those 
under their superintendence are permitted to 
exercise the art. Let, then, the profession take 
the practice up, and we will sacrifice the name. 
Let "Imagination" be placed on the pharmacopoeia; 
let " Imagination " be written on their prescrip- 
tions ; let the students at the hospitals be in- 
structed how to exert the ideal faculty : only, as 
Dugald Stewart so sensibly observes, let them not 
" scruple to copy whatever processes are necessary 
for subjecting diseases to their command." Let 
them not culpably refuse to increase the resources 
of their art ; and I, for one, w T ould gladly consent 
that the management of this mighty agent should 
K 2 



132 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

be left mainly in their hands, and that the name 
of Mesmerism should be discarded and forgotten ! # 
But our concessions and explanations fall un- 
heeded on the ear. The grand coup de theatre yet 
remains ; " Mesmerise me, and I will believe you." 
Often have I heard the most conclusive answers 
presented to these objectors ; every misconception 
has been disposed of by argument, by facts, by 
analogy, when the unbeliever suddenly escapes 
from the controversy by a demand that the ex- 
periment be tried upon himself. And if, as is 
almost certain, the experiment fail, the question 
he considers as finally settled. I was attending a 
mesmeric lecture one day, when a gentleman pre- 
sent sat down on the chair, and requested the 
lecturer to try his skill upon him. — The usual 
manipulations went on for a certain period ; much 
interest was felt by the spectators ; when after a 
given time our unsusceptible gentleman rose up, — 
looked round the room with a triumphant smirk 
of self-satisfaction, declaring that he "felt nothing," 
and then left the company with the air of a philo- 

* Let us note what M. Bertrand, a physician himself, says : — 
" II est de toute evidence que si les savans et les medecins veulent 
guider et faire tourner au profit de l'humanite et des sciences la 
nouvelle decouverte qu'on leur annonce, il faut qu'ils commencent 
par s'en emparer. A quel titre voudront-ils la juger, s'ils sont 
convaincus de ne pas la connaitre ? Et n'est-ce pas line chose 
honteuse pour ceux qui s'occupent de J'art de guerir, de voir les 
magnetiseurs les plus ignorans se montrer plus instruits qu'eux sur 
un grand nombre de phenomenes qui appartient a la connaissance 
de l'homme malade?" — Bertrand, Traite du Somnambulisme, 
p. 431. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 133 

sopher who had refuted the claims of Mesmerism 
once and for ever ! and this is called experiment ! 
as if certain conditions were not indispensable. 
What all those conditions are, we are not prepared 
to show ; but common sense might surely teach 
us, that some conditions were at least required. 
In chemical experiments on impassive material 
substances certain conditions are demanded ; how 
much more so, on the delicate human frame, where 
the mind can in addition offer a resistance, and 
the party himself strain his utmost to reject the 
sleep ? Those who have been present at lectures 
on Galvanism or Chemistry must have observed 
how slight a cause will disturb the simplest ex- 
periment. A change of atmosphere will affect 
the machinery and spoil the electric action in a 
moment. If a conductor be overcharged, a result 
different from the one expected will be evolved. 
If a body be saturated with any ingredient that it 
holds in solution, the effect will not be the same, 
as when the substances are united in more con- 
genial proportions. In some experiments, the 
presence of a small quantity of water appears 
always necessary to develop certain acid pro- 
perties. And thus we might go on ad infinitum. 
And why are not similar laws equally applicable 
in the practice of Mesmerism ? And why is it 
that the parties, who, more than any others, know 
the necessity of such conditions in regard to na- 
tural philosophy, are the very men who dispense 
K 3 



134 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

with their presence in the analogous experiments 
on the human frame. My own opinion on the 
subject, after much observation, is, that sick and 
delicate persons are more susceptible of the mag- 
netic influence than those in robust health. Not 
but what cases can be produced, where the health- 
iest individuals have been readily mesmerised, 
and the delicate invalid remained unaffected : but 
these are the exceptions rather than the rule. 
Where there is any unequal action, — any ir- 
regularity in the system, any improper or feeble 
circulation, — any extreme or overwrought activity 
of the cerebral or nervous temperament, there the 
Mesmeric influence seems to produce an effect. 
Its tendency appears to be to restore the equi- 
librium of a disturbed or irregular distribution of 
the nervous power. Such an irregularity may 
exist, unknown and unsuspected, in the system of 
a robust man, and explain his readier susceptibility 
to the equalising power ; while a more delicate 
patient, from the absence of some other condition, 
which is equally necessary, may resist the influence 
altogether, although the general state of his or- 
ganisation and temperament might, but for this one 
and unknown circumstance, have rendered him pe- 
culiarly alive to the magnetic force. However, 
all this is but conjecture, — and touches not the 
truthfulness of the facts recorded. — It ought, 
moreover, to be added, that sleep is not the only 
or a necessary symptom. Great effects may result, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 135 

— and no sleep take place. Sleep is only one out 
of many symptoms, though of course the most 
general and intelligible. Among the other con- 
ditions^ a physical sympathy between the parties 
seems the first requisite ; what that sympathy may 
be, is a difficult question ; but it is a known fact, 
that a patient yields to the influence of one mes- 
meriser rather than another.* A superior state 
of health, or of muscular energy, or of mental 
power, on the part of the Mesmeriser over the 
patient, seems another condition ; — and yet this 
is by no means invariable or without exceptions. 

* The best practical writer on this subject is Deleuze : his 
experience has been great. I refer my readers to what he says 
on this point — as to a safe authority : — " Tous les hommes ne 
sont pas sensibles a Taction magnetique, et les memes le sont plus 
ou moins, selon les dispositions momentanees dans lesquelles il 
se trouvent. Ordinairement le magnetisme n'exerce aucune 
action sur les personnes qui jouissent d'une sante parfaite. Le 
meme homme qui etait insensible au magnetisme dans Tetat de 
sante, en eprouvera des efFets lorsqu'il sera malade. II est telle 
maladie dans laquelle Taction du magnetisme ne se fait point 
apercevoir ; telle autre sur laquelle cette action est evidente. 
On ri en sait pas encore assez pour determiner la cause de ces ano- 
malies, ni pour prononcer a Tavance si le magnetisme agira ou 
n'agira pas ; on a seulement quelques probabilites a cet egard ; 
mais cela ne saurait motiver une objection contre la realite du 
magnetisme, attendu que les trois quarts des malades au moins 
en resentent les eflfets. 

" La nature a etabli un rapport ou une sympathie physique 
entre quelques individus ; c'est par cette raison que plusieurs 
magnetiseurs agissent beaucoup plus promptement et plus effi- 
cacement sur certains malades que sur d'autres, et que le meme 
magnetiseur ne convient pas egalement a tous les malades. II 
y a meme des magnetiseurs qui sont plus propres a guerir cer- 
taines maladies. Plusieurs personnes se croient insensibles a 
Taction du magnetisme, parce qu'elles n'ont pas rencontre le 
magnetiseur qui leur convient." — Deleuze, Instruction Pra- 
tique, cap. i. sect. 21, 22. 

K 4 



136 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Again, it should be borne in mind, that an apparent 
external effect is not always to be expected at the 
first sitting. Sleep may not be produced for a 
week, for a month, — for three months ; but it 
may come at last, and a cure be effected. In the 
case of individuals in good health it is especially 
less probable that somnolency should come on at 
the first trial ; and in fact, few things are more 
ridiculous or misplaced than the exhibition of a 
vigorous muscular man offering himself to the 
manipulations of the Mesmeriser. Would the 
loss of the same quantity of blood, — or the ad- 
ministration of the same amount of medicine, — have 
the same or equal effect on two opposite constitu- 
tions or habits of body ? The abstraction of ten 
ounces of blood might hardly be felt by a strong 
athletic yeoman, w r hile the depletion would be far 
too reducing for his feeble attenuated daughter. 
One man has been known to swallow with im- 
punity more than twenty of Morison's drastic 
pills ; while two of the same precious preparation 
have induced a distressing and painful result upon 
his apparently healthier and more enduring 
brother. And why is there this difference ? sim- 
ply, — because men's constitutions are different. 
And is Mesmerism to be an exception to this 
general rule ? Be the party mesmerised delicate 
or robust, — the same Mesmeriser only throws off 
a certain amount of Mesmeric influence (whether 
through the medium of some electric fluid we 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 137 

know not), — and why therefore should the same 
effect be expected in these opposite conditions 
within the same period of time ? however, upon 
this point we are as yet in the dark. The above 
observations are rather meant as hints and sug- 
gestions for others. And though the question is 
not one quarter exhausted, enough has been said 
to show the unreasonableness and absurdity of 
those who demand an immediate effect on them- 
selves as a test of this power. What I always 
reply to medical men, who request to be placed 
under the process, — is, — " Do not ask to be 
mesmerised yourself; go and mesmerise your 
patients, — and depend upon it, that you will not 
only accomplish much benefit, but you will soon 
have a proof of the truth of my words." But far 
better would it be to quote the language of Bacon 
in his Essay on Seeming Wise. "It is a ridi- 
culous thing," says he, " and fit for a satire of 

judgment, to see what shifts men have 

Some think to bear it by speaking a great word, 
and being peremptory, and go on and take by 
admittance that which they cannot make good. 
Some, whatever is beyond their reach will seem to 
despise, or make light of it, as impertinent or 
curious, and so would have their ignorance seem 
judgment" 

Here, then, is the position on which I take my 
stand, — and to which I respectfully invite the 
consideration of the scientific world, that be the 



138 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

exciting or immediate cause, imitation, monotony, 
hysteria, imagination, or so forth, this accumu- 
lation of evidence, out of Germany, out of France, 
out of England, — and many other countries, 
proves beyond a doubt, that a strong curative 
effect in a certain class of diseases can be pro- 
duced by what is called Mesmerism, — so strong 
indeed, — that the physician and the philan- 
thropist are alike bound, for the sake of humanity 
alone, to give the subject the fullest and fairest 
trial. 

But, says the " Christian Observer," all farther 
investigation is needless, — for the French com- 
missioners have long ago decided the question. 
" Their report," it adds, " was full, candid, ela- 
borate, and satisfactory." And the " commis- 
sioners proved that no magnetic influence was 
evolved," — and that " Mesmer stood convicted 
of being a conscious imposter." 

Often as this statement has been rebutted, it 
is still necessary to go over the ground again. 
For not only must such a representation have its 
effect, but there is, moreover, a general impression 
afloat, that the decision of the French savans has 
been adverse to our system. 

The Reviewer says, — " We are not aware 
whether the report of the commissioners has been 
reprinted, since the revival of these follies." And 
from the manner in which he treats the question, 
it may be doubted, whether he has read the 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 139 

report himself, and has not taken his opinion, 
second-hand, from some careless or prejudiced 
writers. At any rate, I have read the report. 
I went last autumn to the British Museum, and 
read it carefully and analytically through. And 
the attention of my readers is requested, not only 
to the real representation as to how far that 
report goes, — but also to the important resolu- 
tions of a second and far more valuable com- 
mission. 

It may, perhaps, be desirable that this state- 
ment be preceded by a slight sketch of Mesmer 
and of the proceedings of his opponents. 

Animal magnetism, it is generally supposed, 
has been always more or less practised by a select 
class, who, through some means or other, had 
arrived at the discovery. Many names could be 
mentioned under this head. But be this as it 
may, it was about 1776, that Anthony Mesmer, 
a native of Switzerland, and a physician and 
resident of Vienna, who had been for some time 
making use of the common magnet in his medical 
practice, perceived that he was able to produce a 
variety of phenomena of a very peculiar cha- 
racter without the magnet at all, and by the in- 
fluence of some power proceeding from his own 
body. Repeated experiments confirmed him in 
this opinion : he applied this new treatment ex- 
tensively among the sick ; great success attended 
him ; and his name became notorious. He now 



140 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

removed to Paris, as to a wider theatre for his 
labours. After a time considerable progress was 
made by him there in the dissemination of his 
views ; patients of all ranks flocked to his house ; 
he began to accumulate a large fortune ; and the 
French government even offered a very handsome 
pecuniary remuneration for the communication of 
his secret. 

Not satisfied with his success, Mesmer must 
needs put forth a theory. He contended that 
there was a subtle fluid pervading the whole uni 
verse, which was capable of being put into mo- 
tion, and through which the most powerful effects 
could be obtained. He went at great length into 
an examination of this theory, on which it is now 
needless to dwell. But it is important to add 
that this theory was an essential part of his 
system, — that he pressed it strongly upon the 
attention of the learned ; — and that this assumed 
subtle matter he designated by the name of the 
magnetic fluid, and his treatment of his patients 
he called animal magnetism. 

But this was not all. His enemies say that 
Mesmer was not a really philosophic inquirer. 
Truth, for its own sake, and for the good of his 
species, was not his single aim. According to 
their statement, he invested his practice Avith a 
dramatic and unreal character ; — he assumed a 
mysterious demeanour, — clothed his experiments 
with a magical obscurity, — assumed a mas 



MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 141 

pierading costume, and was as much of the cliar- 
atan as of the scientific discoverer. All this, 
lowever, is as strongly denied by his partisans 
mcl followers. 

These proceedings, however, attracted the at- 
ention of the wits at Paris. His medical bre- 
:hren were in an uproar : the public journals at- 
tacked him ; — the philosophers were disgusted ; 
mcl few besides the sick were on his side. Yet 
Mesmer grew bolder and bolder: he asserted 
that " there is but one health, one disease, — and 
one remedy ; " and this remedy, he said, was alone 
to be obtained through his magnetic subtle fluid. 

Government at length took the subject up. 
The amiable and unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth 
issued a mandate in 1784, requiring a commis- 
sion to investigate the matter. The commis- 
sioners appointed were some of them members of 
the Academy of Sciences, some of the medical 
faculty, and others of the Society of Physicians, 
and contained in their number a few remarkable 
names. Among them were Lavoisier, who might 
almost be called the father of modern chemistry ; 
Bailly, whose subsequent fate in the French 
Revolution was so memorable and melancholy ; 
Guillotin, who in the same revolution obtained 
such an unfortunate distinction from his recom- 
mendation of that slaughterous engine which was 
called after his name; Jussieu, the illustrious 
botanist ; and, lastly, that great statesman-philo- 



142 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

sopher of the other hemisphere, to whom has been 
so happily applied the line of the poet, 

" Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis." 

Of course, to men like these, to say nothing of 
the other able names that were included in the 
commission, the profoundest deference is due. 
Though authority cannot overthrow facts, yet 
still authority is to be heard with grave attention 
in a report on those facts ; — and here the ques- 
tion is, how far these commissioners have de- 
cided, or intended to decide, against the facts of 
Mesmerism, — and how far their opinion goes in 
subverting the reality of the cures effected by its 
power. 

The answer is, that they decided nothing on 
the subject : the facts they have left untouched ; 
the cures in great measure undenied ; their main 
drift and aim was against the theory. 

It has been said, — in opposition to one of the 
statements of the " Christian Observer " in re- 
gard to the " candid " manner of their inquiries, 

— that the commissioners behaved most unfairly, 

— that their examination was incomplete and 
superficial, — and that they took but small trouble 
to observe. All this I cannot bring myself to 
believe ; their names are a guarantee against any 
such imputations. Men like Bailly and his col- 
leagues must have intended all that was fair and 
candid. But that their examination was " full or 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 143 

satisfactory/ 5 1 deny. That they entered upon the 
subject with strongly-formed prejudices is well 
known. Their experiments were not continuous 
enough, — were not followed up closely by the 
sames parties, and were not conducted in com- 
pliance with the rules required for their success ; 
and with Lavoisier, the great chemical philosopher 
at their head, their object was to detect the pre- 
sence of Mesmer's subtle fluid, and failing in that, 
they considered the real labours of the commis- 
sion virtually at an end. 

The idea of " utility " was not lost upon them ; 
and one might have thought that such a view of 
the question would have interested Franklin, and 
secured a careful investigation. " Le Magnetisme 
Animal," says the Report, " peut bien exister sans 
etre utile, mais il ne peut etre utile, s'il n'existe 
pas." But the fact is, Franklin was not in good 
health at the time ; and from the language of the 
Report, it would appear almost certain that he 
was not present at Paris during any of the ex- 
periments. The commissioners all went one day 
to his house at Passy ; there a few experiments 
were made ; there he himself was magnetised, and 
felt no sensation ; and this imperfect examination 
and personal trial seems to have satisfied him. 
He signed the report ; and his name therefore is 
always quoted as an authority on the subject; 
but the world must judge how far the opinion of 
a man, whose energies and bodily activity were 



144 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

at that time in abeyance, can legitimately be 
claimed as decisive, especially after so brief and 
unsatisfactory an inquiry. 

But the other commissioners, though, doubts 
all in good faith, omitted, in their experiments, 
many conditions, which they were told were in- 
dispensable. They were not steady in their at- 
tendance ; and the experiments, moreover, were 
not conducted in the presence or under the super- 
intendence of Mesmer himself, — but of one of 
his pupils (D'Eslon), who afterwards protested 
against their reports (for there was more than 
one) as incorrect and unsatisfactory. 

And what did these reports at length declare ? 
Did they deny the facts ? Rather they established 
their reality. They say that, having ascertained 
that this animal fluid cannot be perceived by any 
of our senses (les commissaires ayant reconnu que 
ce fluide magnetique animal ne peut etre apercu 
par aucun de nos sens), they came to the conclu- 
sion that nothing proves the existence of this mag- 
netic animal fluid ; — that, therefore, not being in 
existence, it cannot be useful: — (que rien ne prouve 
l'existence du fluide magnetique animal ; que ce 
fluide, sans existence, est par consequent sans uti- 
lite, &c.) ; and, consequently, they decided that 
some other theory must be brought forward to 
account for the facts (les effets). 

The existence of many of these facts they ac- 
knowledge ; they describe some of the most im- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 145 

portant phenomena ; they mention many singular 
convulsions, involuntary movements, and sympa- 

js (rien n'est plus etonnant que le spectacle de 
. ^convulsions . . . des sympathies qui s'eta- 
blissent. — Rapport de Bailly) : but Mesmer's the- 
ory they consider null and void ; — and declare 
that the reality of the fluid could only be proved 
by its curative effects ; as if those curative effects 
were not, after all, the most essential point to- 
wards which the commissioners could look (son 
existence ne peut etre demontree que par les effets 
curat ifs dans le trait ement des maladies). 

And what is the theory they offer in opposition ? 
"Imagination," "Imitation," and "Touch;"— these 
they asserted were the causes of all that occurred. 
(De ces experiences, les commissaires ont conclu 
que 1'imagination fait tout, que le magnetisme est 
nul. Imagination, imitation, attouchement, telles 
sont les vraies causes des effets attribues au Mag- 
netisme Animal). 

It is unnecessary to enter upon a refutation of 
their hypothesis; — all the commissioners attempted, 
was to pull down one theory, and build up another ; 
— and this their Report, inconclusive, unsatisfac- 
tory, — and, if we may so speak of such men, un- 
philosophical in the extreme, — is declared by the 
Christian Observer, and other writers, to be deci- 
sive of the question, and as having convicted Mes- 
mer of being a conscious impostor. 

But, inconclusive even as the Report was, there 
L 



146 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

is yet a more noticeable shortcoming. One great 
name is wantino; to the signatures. The virtuous 
and intelligent Jussieu, — he who in the study of 
botany is an authority of the first rank, — paid the 
closest attention to the proceedings ; and, " not- 
withstanding the pressing solicitation of his col- 
leagues, and the menaces of the minister, the Baron 
de Breteuil," refused to subscribe his name, and 
actually drew up a special Report of his own. 
In that Report he states that the " experiments 
he has himself made, and those of which he has 
been a witness, convince him that man produces 
upon man a decided action by friction (frotte- 
ment), by contact, and, more rarely, by an approx- 
imation at a little distance ; — that this action 
seems to belong to some animal warmth existing 
in the body ; — and that judged by its effects, it 
occasionally partakes of a tonic and salutary result ; 
— but that a more extended acquaintance with 
this c agenf will make us better understand its 
real action and utility." * 



* " Que les experiences qu'il a faites, et dont il a ete temoin, 
prouvent que l'homme produit sur son semblable une action 
sensible par le frottement, par le contact, et plus rarement par 
un simple rapprochement a quelque distance ; que cette action, 
attribute a une fluide universelle non demontree, lui sembleapar- 
tenir a la chaleur animale existante dans les corps ; que cette cha- 
leur emane d'eux continuellement, se porte assez loin, et peut 
passer d'un corps dans un autre ; qu'elle est developpee, aug- 
mented, ou diminuee dans un corps par des causes morales et par 
des causes physiques ; que, jugee par des effets, elle participe de 
la propriete des remedes toniques, et produit comme eux des effets 
salutaires on nuisibles, selon la quantite de chaleur communiquee, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 147 

Here then is a significant fact in the history of 
this science, which ought to have arrested the con- 
clusions of the faculty. But Jussieu's counter- 
statements were laughed at and set aside. It was 
everywhere reported that the commissioners had 
put the matter to rest ; and that large body of the 
public who never think for themselves, or care to 
distinguish, assumed that the refutation of the 
theory was a refutation of the facts ; and so Ani- 
mal Magnetism was considered as extinguished 
and buried for ever. While the stirring scenes of 
the approaching Revolution, and its sad and tra- 
gical horrors, and still more the wonders of Napo- 
leon's reign, so diverted men's minds from the sub- 
ject, that to the great mass of the French people 
the existence of Mesmerism was a forgotten fact 
in history. 

But truth is eternal, and the triumph of its ene- 
mies but short-lived and inglorious. Though a 
passing cloud may overshadow it, and appear to 
darken the prospect hopelessly, it is only that it 
may shine forth with greater brightness than ever. 
As one of our most glowing writers says of certain 
favourite principles, " Though they fall, it is but to 
rebound ; — though they recede, it is but to spring 
forward with greater elasticity ; though they pe- 
rish, there are the seeds of vitality in their very 

et selon les circonstances ou elle est employee ; qu'enfin un usage 
plus etendu et plus reflechi de cet agent fera mieux connaitre sa 
veritable action et son degre d'utilite." — p. 50. 

L 2 



148 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

decay ;" — and so it is with truth and with the facts 
of Mesmerism. This exploded science " lived on/' 
— " brokenly/' indeed, as the poet says, — and 
" showing no visible sign" of existence ; — still it 
"lived on/' — and after a time gradually began 
to increase, and then to flourish, and at last to 
lift up its head only higher than before. The 
" crushing report" of the commissioners had not 
killed it. Numbers of able and learned men still 
adhered pertinaciously to its cause. Schools were 
formed, — societies established for its promotion. 
The Marquis de Puysegur, a gallant soldier, de- 
voted his whole soul and time to the treatment. 
His success was immense. The cures performed 
by him were numerous. In Germany, in France, 
more especially at Strasburg and Paris, the subject 
was taken up with as great zeal as previously ; 
and what is more to the purpose, with a judgment 
and sober consideration, and an utter absence of 
all cliarlatanerie and mystery. 

So signal was the progress, that a decided sensa- 
tion was now made on the medical world. A 
young physician at Paris, the amiable and learned 
Foissac, made a stirring appeal to his brethren in 
its behalf. In 1825, he addressed a memorial to 
the members of the Royal Academy of Medicine, 
pointing out the necessity of a fresh and more 
satisfactory inquiry. Without entering upon the 
details, let it be sufficient to state, that a Second 
Commission was appointed ; that this commission 
consisted exclusively of medical men, some of 



MESMERISM AXD ITS OPPONENTS. 149 

them of very high standing in their profession ; — ■ 
that a most careful and scientific investigation 
took place ; — and that in 1831 a Report on their 
Magnetic Experiments was laid before the Aca- 
demy. And what was the nature of this Report ? 
Was it evasive., cold, neutral, condemnatory ? It 
was satisfactory and decisive in the highest degree. 
After having given a most interesting and circum- 
stantial account of their proceedings, they finish 
with a series of conclusions, to w^hich they had 
arrived : they are thirty in number, and ought to 
be read, as well as the Report itself, by every one 
interested in the subject ; space can only be af- 
forded for a few extracts, but these are decisive 
enough. They say : ■ — 

8. A certain number of the effects observed ap- 
peared to us to depend upon Magnetism alone, 
and were never produced without its applica- 
tion. These are well established physiolo- 
gical and therapeutic phenomena. 
29. Considered as a cause of certain physiological 
phenomena, or as a therapeutic remedy, Mag- 
netism ought to be allowed a place within the 
circle of the medical sciences; and conse- 
quently, physicians only should practise it, 
or superintend its use, as is the case in the 
northern countries.* 



* 8. Un certain nombre deseffets observes nousontparusdependre 

du magnetisme seul, et ne se sont pas reproduit sans lui. Ce sont 

L 3 



150 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

And they conclude with sayings — " We dare 
not flatter ourselves with the hope of making you 
participate entirely in our conviction of the reality 
of the phenomena, which we have observed, and 
which you have neither seen, nor followed, nor 
studied along with us. We do not, therefore, 
demand of you a blind belief of all that we have 
reported. We conceive that a great proportion of 
these facts are of a nature so extraordinary, that 
you cannot accord them such a credence. . . . We 
only request that you would judge us as we should 
judge you, — that is to say, that you be completely 
convinced, that neither the love of the marvellous, 
nor the desire of celebrity, nor any views of inte- 
rest whatever, influenced us during our labours." 

This Report was signed by nine physicians. 
The two who did not sign did not consider them- 
selves entitled to do so, from not having assisted 
at the experiments. The Report was laid before 
the Academy, who resolved that manuscript co- 
pies should be taken of it (faire autographier le 
Rapport). To this no objection was made : and 
the adversaries of Mesmerism resigned themselves, 
as far as the Academy was concerned, to an abso- 
lute silence on the subject. And from that hour, 

des phenomenes physiologiques et therapeutiques bien constates. 
29. Considere comme agent de phenomenes physiologiques, ou 
comme moyen therapeutique, le magnetisme devrait trouver sa 
place dans le cadre des connoisances medicales ; et par consequent 
les medecins seuls devraient en faire ou en surveiller l'emploi, 
ainsi que cela se pratique dans les pays du nord. — Foissac, Rap- 
ports, p. 206. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 151 

Mesmerism lias been gaining ground in France, 
with such an impetus, that, as I before stated on 
very excellent authority, a fourth of the medical 
men in Paris are staunch upholders of the science. 
" But," says the Christian Observer, with a 
pertinacity worthy of a better cause, "if the 
French Commissioners have not decided the ques- 
tion, Mr. Wakley has." "Mr, Wakley laid bare 
some of the impositions to the conviction of un- 
prejudiced observers." " The wary coroner quietly 
slipped the wonder-working talisman (a piece of 
nickel) into a friend's hand, and substituted for it 
a piece of Queen Victoria's vulgar copper coin." 
" It was impossible that the hopeful young lady," 
— as the writer unbecomingly terms as respect- 
able a person as himself, — " could have exhibited 
such characteristic indications of Mesmeric influ- 
ence if she had not been duly nickelised." And 
the editor of the " Lancet " is for ever referring 
his readers to those identical proceedings, and as- 
suming that there is no appeal from his infallible 
tribunal. It is a new sight to behold Mr. Wakley 
and the u Christian Observer " yoked together in 
the same car of " compact alliance." Misery, they 
say, makes us acquainted with strange companions; 
and a bad cause appears to have much the same 
result. Not that Mr. Wakley's opinions are un- 
deserving of attention. Mr. Wakley has " done 
the state some service." His first establishment 
of the " Lancet " was a useful act : it emancipated 
L 4 



152 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

the minds of the junior members of his profession 
from a sluggish deference to official authority ; 
and it often threw considerable light on some more 
than questionable proceedings within the different 
hospitals. In fact, it furnished an abundance of 
valuable information for all classes. Mr. Wakley's 
conduct in Parliament, in spite of his political 
ultraism, has been often marked by an honest 
detestation and exposure of abuse. And as a 
coroner, though occasionally officious and med- 
dling, he has brought the reluctant authorities to 
a better knowledge of their duty. Still Mr. Wakley 
is not oracular on every subject. Clever as he is, 
he may, like other men, occasionally be mistaken, 
especially on points which he has little studied, 
and to which he comes for a novel and first expe- 
riment. He has so often enlightened the world 
with a description of what he tried in the cases of 
two of Dr. Elliotson's patients, that it is needless 
to repeat the story. It may be as well, however, 
to state, that it was in a set of experiments with 
nickel and lead, and which, he says, most egre- 
giously failed, and proved the falsehood and im- 
position of the pretended sleepers. Those who 
have read Mr. Wakley's strictures should know 
that every charge has been again and again suc- 
cessfully answered. Dr. Elliotson, in the Letter 
to his Pupils on resigning his chair in University 
College, has entered fully into every part of the 
subject. Those who adopt the accusation should, 



MESMERIS3I AND ITS OPPONENTS. 153 

at least, look into the reply. They will there find 
it stated, that some part of the proceedings were 
" entirely suppressed." They w T ill there see how 
necessary it is in an experiment with metals on 
the human frame to proceed with the greatest 
caution and observation. They will there learn 
what slight disturbing effects change the nervous 
condition of the patient, and alter and affect the 
result of the experiment. " He acted," says Dr. 
Elliotson, w as though Mesmeric susceptibility is 
always present, and always the same ; whereas the 
reverse is the fact; and experiments with water 
and metals frequently repeated so derange the 
susceptibility that we are often obliged to desist." 
Many a school-boy has made the trial of tasting, 
with his eyes bandaged, alternate glasses of white 
and red wine, till at last his palate has become so 
disordered, that he has been unable to detect the 
difference, and know the one from the other. In 
Mesmeric experiments, whether in phreno-mag- 
netism or with metals, it is indispensable with 
most patients that the action of the first experi- 
ment be removed, or wear off, before a second and 
different one be attempted. They will otherwise 
dash and injure each other. Time and the greatest 
aicety are requisite. The slightest circumstance 
nay upset and disturb the patient, and so produce 
i real failure in the experiment, and a seeming im- 
posture on the part of the sleeper. With some 
somnambulists the trial with metals is complete ; 



154 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

with others it is most uncertain. This is men- 
tioned as a caution to those who quit a public lecture 
with their scepticism only the more strengthened, 
because the mesmerised metals have not obtained 
the promised effect. But waving all this for a 
moment, let us suppose that these two most re- 
spectable patients of Dr. Elliotson, — patients with 
whom the editor of a religious periodical might 
not be ashamed to be acquainted, — let us sup- 
pose that these two patients were *' deluding," 
and " affecting to suffer," and, for " sordid gain," 
" pretending to respond to the magical control " of 
the magnetist. What then: does the cause of 
Mesmerism depend upon the truthfulness of one 
or two cases ? Granted that they were false, it 
would be rather a strong inference to assume that 
every thing else were a mistake. What yet be- 
comes of the thousand and one cases that could 
easily be counted up, if a careful statistical body 
of evidence were collected from all quarters ? It 
is to facts without number that we appeal ; to 
facts confirmed by experiment and observation ; 
and a hundred failures, or a hundred cases of im- 
posture, would detract but a small amount from 
the actual heap : 

" Suave est ex magno tollere acervo." 

But we must inform these cruel and thoughtless 
writers, who, for the sake of a pungent sentence, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 155 

care not what libels they scatter against amiable 
and unoffending women, that these two sister- 
patients of Dr. Elliotson were not impostors. One 
of them is most respectably married ; and both 
have secured the good opinion of all who know 
them. But as one test of sincerity is better than 
fifty assertions, let us state an actual fact, and see 
how far it will serve as a set-off to Mr. Wakley's 
charges. Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, " as hard-headed 
and little credulous a man as exists," had often 
excused himself, when invited, from going to Uni- 
versity College Hospital to witness the Mesmeric, 
phenomena in the cases of these two sisters. At 
last he went, and was astonished ; but still would 
not make up his mind to believe what he saw. 
When the experiments w^ere over, and he was 
passing through some part of the hospital to leave 
it, he accidentally noticed one of the sisters with 
her back to him, hanging over the balusters care- 
lessly, and looking down, still in the Mesmeric 
delirium, and therefore highly susceptible. He 
thought this a favourable opportunity to test her, 
because he was satisfied that she could not see 
anything that he did. He made a pass behind 
her back at some distance with his hand directed 
to her, and she instantly was fixed and rigid, and 
perfectly senseless. He had sense enough to 
believe his senses, — and was now satisfied of the 
reality of all he had beheld."* This was a con- 

* Zo'ist, No. I. p. 83. 



156 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

vincing fact ; and might satisfy the brother-editors 
of the " Lancet " and of the " Christian Observer' 
of the truthfulness and honesty of the calumniated 
sleeper. A similar thing occurred to a friend of 
mine, as clear-headed and strong-minded a man as 
any of my acquaintance. He made a pass behind 
the patient's back (one of the sisters Okey), at 
Dr. Elliotson's house, when she was occupied in 
conversation with some one else, and was uncon- 
scious of his presence and intention. In truth, he 
was hardly conscious of the intention himself; for 
it was the thought and act of a moment. But the 
poor girl was instantly seized, and fell back in a 
state of torpor. The gentleman who told me this 
is no believer in Mesmerism : he merely mentioned 
it as a circumstance that occurred within his expe- 
rience. Facts, however, such as these will receive 
the attention of the candid and the impartial ; 
they refute the imputation of deception ; — and it 
is by such plain statements that we reply to the 
heartless slanders of Mr, Wakley and his new ally, 
the " Christian Observer." 

But if Mr. Wakley did not succeed in dis- 
proving the honesty of two excellent sisters, there 
was one thing in which he was eminently for- 
tunate. The thunders of the " Lancet " had their 
intended effect on his medical brethren. Though 
anything but a favourite with them before, he 
henceforward became their pet authority. And 
3trange to say he also became their terror. Fear- 



MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 157 

ful of being hitched into a line of the next week's 
Q Lancet/' as believers in the so-called absurdity, 
some gentlemen straightway swallowed their 
rising convictions with wry faces and reluctant 
hearts ; — while the remainder, almost to a man, 
refused for the future to be present at any Mes- 
meric demonstration whatsoever. Like Mr. 
M'Jseile at Liverpool, they carefully retreated 
from the evidence of their own senses, but from 
a different reason altogether. My clerical brother 
judged that there was something supernatural in 
these cases ; — he regretted that he had not faith 
to play the part of exorciser and bid the devil 
depart *, and from want of this faith would " see 
nothing ofit" But the fears of the liberal pro- 
fession were of a different order. It was not of 
an evil spirit that they stood in awe; it was of 
Mr. Wakley, — of the evil genius of the "Lancet," 
— of the gibes and jeerings of a substantial, cor- 
poreal editor, before which they shrank rebuked. 
This was the demon whom they dreaded: and 
though we might have expected better things 
from such a body of men, it is a fact, that mainly 
through an apprehension of having their names 
brought forward before the public in the pages of 
a clever periodical, very many gentlemen turned 
their backs on the subject, and from that hour 
declined all invitations to visit and examine the 

* See Sermon, p. 147. 



158 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

phenomena for themselves. And thus it went on 
for a few years. The progress of Mesmerism was 
seemingly suspended in this country. It ap- 
peared stifled in its birth, an unlucky abortion, 
of which nothing more would be heard. But 
silently and steadily was it making way. A 
change was gradually coming on. Day by day 
fresh accessions were counted in its train. The 
leaven was fermenting ; and even from the ranks 
of the faculty a few adherents occasionally 
dropped in. I hope that I may now say confi- 
dently that a better spirit has decidedly sprung 
up among them. In that noble profession, which 
is alike distinguished for its humanity, its ability, 
its love of science, its love of truth, its large and 
comprehensive philosophy, I believe that the far 
greater number would be ready to give, even to 
the hateful study of Mesmerism, the benefit of a 
faithful and dispassionate inquiry. I am sure 
that there are many who would cheerfully admit 
that the field of usefulness is enlarged by it, and 
the means of lessening human ills considerably 
extended. I know that there are several, who, at 
the risk of damaging their worldly prospects, do 
not hesitate to step forward fearlessly and man- 
fully, as believers in, and practisers of, the calum 
niated science. More especially from among the 
younger members of the profession, there are to 
be found many zealous and talented men, taking a 
high and independent position, anxiously devoting 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 159 

their attention to the study, gathering facts as 
they arise, and prepared to employ the aid of this 
new power among the means of cure at their dis- 
posal. O si sic omnes ! For there are others, 
and particularly among the leaders * in more than 
one metropolis, who, to judge from their conduct 
and their language, would seem to have the same 
horror at being witnesses of Mesmeric phenomena, 
as the bat has at the approach of light. They 
sneer or smile when the subject is brought for- 
ward, according to their own turn of mind, or 
rather according to the temper of those with 
whom they argue. But to be present, — to have 
their names bruited about as testimonies of a fact, 

— to be unable to resist their own convictions, — 
to be unable to remain in the bliss of ignorance, 

— this is a position from which they fall back 
with a secret dread of approaching danger. They 
can be sharp-sighted enough in detecting nar- 



* Apropos of leaders in a profession, Hume says that "Harvey- 
is entitled to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without 
any mixture of accident, a capital discovery in one of the most 
important branches of science. He had also the happiness of es- 
tablishing at once his theory on the most solid and convincing 
proofs ; and society has added little to the arguments sug- 
gested by his industry and ingenuity. ... It was remarked 
that no physician in Europe, who had reached forty years of age, 
ever to the end of his life, adopted Harvey s doctrine of the circulation 
of the blood, and that his practice in London diminished extremely, 
from the reproach drawn upon him by that great and signal dis- 
covery. So slow is the progress of truth in every science, even 
when not opposed by factious or superstitious prejudices ! He 
died in 1657, aged 79." — Hume's History of England, cap. 
62. 



160 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

rowness of spirit in any other quarter, — advo- 
cates for freedom of conscience in theology, — 
ameliorators of our criminal code in matters of 
jurisprudence, — liberal, tolerant, and haters oi 
abuse ; — but the moment that Mesmeric in- 
fluence is proposed as an auxiliary to their prac- 
tice, that instant they are as sensitive, as angry, 
as staunch adherents of what is old, — as stout 
opponents of what is new, — as though the 
charter and privileges of their order w^ere being 
jeopardied for ever ! Doubtless, in all experi- 
ments of a strange and novel character, the public 
do expect from the medical profession the most 
cautious, slow, and deliberate frame of mind. 
They expect from their closer cognisance of sub- 
jects of this nature the most searching, scrutin- 
izing, hesitating conduct. Nay, they would not 
even be displeased to see an inquiry carried on in 
a sceptical, unbelieving spirit. But still they do 
expect inquiry of some kind.* They do not ex- 

* It would be unjust not to acknowledge, that many medical 
men, and some with whom T have the pleasure of being acquainted, 
have made a most fair and straightforward inquiry into the sub- 
ject. But we too often meet with much of a contrary character. 
A letter was read to me from the West of England, saying, " We 
have had a lecturer on Mesmerism here ; all our medical men 
were present, and behaved in the most brutal and outrageous 
way." A lady, where I was on a visit lately, said, " We have 

had a Mesmeric lecturer in our town : Mr. , a surgeon, 

behaved in the most bullying manner, and did all he could to in- 
timidate the parties." In Norwich a Mesmeriser was recently 
giving a lecture. A most intelligent inhabitant of that city told 
me that many of the medical men " were furious " on the occa- 
sion. One of them, who was present, suddenly took out 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 161 

pect to see a subject of this important nature 
treated with the vulgarest vituperation and ridi- 
cule ; its supporters stigmatised as credulous, its 
operators defamed as fraudulent, its patients 
mocked at as impostors. They do not expect to 
see the heads of a profession which piques itself 
ore-eminently on its liberality, exhibiting the 
bigotry of the priest, and the special pleading of 
the lawyer. Look, for instance, at what took 
3lace a few years back at the London University 
through the instigation and promptings of cer- 
tain members of the faculty. Often is the world 
invited to sneer at the blind prejudices that dis- 
figure the banks of the Isis ; — often have the 
venerable doctors of Oxford been satirized for 
their love of the useless and the obsolete to the 
prejudice of some nobler branches of knowledge ; 



lancet and ran it deeply into the patient's finger under the nail 
into the quick ; a part most exquisitely sensitive, as we all know : 
no expression of pain was evident at the time ; but the poor boy 
suffered a good deal after he was awakened. I neither know nor 
wish to learn the name of the party who was guilty of this un- 
manly outrage. A strong feeling, I understand, has been enter- 
tained respecting him. But these are the ways in which an in- 
quiry is conducted, — if conducted at all, rather than with a calm, 
patient, philosophic temper, solicitous of truth. A most acute 
observer, though no believer in Mesmerism, lately remarked to 
me : — " From what I read in different provincial papers, and from 
what I have heard from other quarters, it seems to me, that me- 
dical men attend these meetings, not with the humane desire of 
discovering a valuable auxiliary, but solely with the hope of de- 
tecting imposture." It is too nearly the truth. I have also read 
some curious accounts of what took place lately at Bedford and 
at Exeter. The conduct of certain parties to Mr. Vernon at 
Greenwich must be fresh in every one's memory. 

M 



162 MESMEPvISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

but in spite of all the faults of Alma Mater, — 
in spite of all her past and present absurdities, I 
would contrast her conduct on a memorable oc- 
casion in academic history, with the intolerance 
and hatred of novelty that recently marked the 
more modern institution. Are the circumstances, 
for instance, under which Locke was expelled 
from Christ Church, one whit more disgraceful 
in themselves, than the treatment which induced 
Dr. Elliotson to withdraw his name from the 
Professorship in the University of London ? Was 
the temple of science more liberal than the hall 
of logic ? was the new foundation more friendly 
to enlightened investigations than the old ? What, 
in short, were the respective circumstances of the 
two cases ? In the ancient seat of learning, the 
timidity or servility of a dean and chapter ex- 
punged the name of the philosopher from the 
books of his college at the mandate of an arbitrary 
sovereign ; James the Second was the real cause 
of the expulsion of Locke, though the University 
of Oxford had long endured a most unjust oppro- 
bium on the subject, till Lord Grenville cleared 
the matter up * : while in the model institution, 
the vacancy in the Professor's chair was the result 
of an opposition to physiological experiments on 
the part of soi-disant friends to scientific inquiry. 
— an opposition that was set on foot by Dr. 

* See " Locke and Oxford," by Lord Grenville. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 163 

Elliotson's own colleagues, and carried out to its 
completion by the despotic members of a liberal 
council ! 

But this subject will bear a little further ex- 
amination. 

The University of London, or, as it has since 
been designated, University College, was originally 
formed on the most liberal principles. No tests, — 
no subscriptions were admissible; — but to promote 
the largest amount of knowledge amongst the 
largest number of students, was the projected 
theory of its friends and founders. The stare 
super antiquas vias, — the clinging to old usages, 
— the rejection of new truths, — this was the 
favourite charge against the elder Institutions; but 
with the rival establishment in Grower Street, an 
order of things was to arise which would lead men 
forward to fresh fields of knowledge. Nay, so 
liberal were they, that the very name of Religion 
was not to pass their threshold ; each man was to 
do what seemed right in his own eyes ; and wor- 
ship his Creator (or not) after the fashion he liked 
best. K But," says a clever article in the Spectator 
Newspaper, " there are few, even among the most 
liberal, who apply their liberalism to every point. 
Some are liberal on commercial, some on theologi- 
cal, some on political, and some on juridical ques- 
tions ; — but beyond the pale of their own peculiar 
I subject, they are often as intolerant as ignorance 
M 2 



164 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

can make them"* And thus, in the University of 
London, though every one was to be his own theo- 
logian, the same latitude was not granted in the 
matter of medicine. Here all was by precedent 
and prescription ; here the conventional customs of 
the faculty were deemed sacred as the Thirty-nine 
Articles elsewhere; here, whatever was not stamped 
with the orthodox seal of the College of Surgeons, 
was shunned as a heresy, to be burnt by the hands 
of the common hangman. As for the spiritual 
state of the students, — for their immortal and bet- 
ter part, no matter what was the result with them ; 
these young men might become Budhists, Maho- 
metans, Atheists, or Muggletonians; — any thing 
they pleased, so long as their freedom of choice 
w r as not interfered with ; — but for the perishing 
bodies of the sick, all must be done selon les regies; 
cure or relief was unimportant, so that the preju- 
dices of the practitioner were not offended. Ac- 
cordingly, when Mesmerism was introduced into the 
Hospital by their most distinguished Physician, — 
though the patients themselves were willing reci- 
pients, — though the most signal benefits were be- 
ing daily experienced, — though the academies at 
Paris and Berlin had not thought the question be- 
neath their notice, — this new, — this liberal, — this 
consistent University stepped forward to aim a blow 

* Spectator, Nov. 11th, 1843. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 165 

at a science in its birth. The free-thinking Coun- 
cil met and passed the following Resolution: — ■ 

"Resolved, — That the Hospital Committee be 
instructed to take such steps as they shall deem 
most advisable to prevent the practice of Mesmer- 
ism, or Animal Magnetism, in future within the 
Hospital." 

No sooner was this Resolution passed, than Dr. 
Elliotson sent in his resignation. It ought, how- 
ever, to be made known that four Members of the 
Council, true to their own principles and to the 
great cause of humanity, constituted an honour- 
able minority in a vote* on a proposition that Dr. 
Elliotson should be invited back to resume his 
chair. These four were Lord Brougham*, Sir L. 
Goldsmith, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Bishop. But the 
Council rejected the proposition. 

And so much for the liberal University of Lon- 
don! 

Look, for another instance, to what occurred 
not lono; ago in Manchester. When the British 
Association, in one of its erratic flights, was pre- 
paring to visit that city, and by aid of railway 
excursions in the morning, and concerts and 
conversaziones in the evening "cram" its money- 

* Lord Brougham was not then a believer in Mesmerism. I 
believe that it is now understood, that this distinguished states- 
man, who has so strongly impressed the character of his mind 
upon the present generation, is a convert to the truth of this im- 
portant science. With such a name on our side we can afford to 
be laughed at. 

M 3 



166 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

making population with the arcana of science, 
Mr. Braid *, a surgeon of that place, who had long 
devoted his attention to Mesmerism, offered a pa- 
per on the subject to the medical section, and pro- 
posed "to produce as many of his patients as possible 
in proof of the curative agency " of his particular 
system. He thought that "gentlemen of scientific 
attainments might thus have an opportunity of 
investigating the subject, unbiassed by local or 
personal prejudice." He himself " hoped to learn 
something from others, on points which were mys- 
terious to him, as to the cause of the phenomena." 
And when we know the character of some of his 
alleged cures, — when we learn that many suc- 
cessful cures in paralysis, — in tic-doloureux, and 
in rheumatism, and of improvement in sight, were 
amongst them, the public might naturally conclude 
that these savans would gladly accept the offer, 
and bring their scientific knowledge to bear upon 
the subject. Here was a concentration of talent and 
philosophy met together ; and now was a golden 
time for going into the question, and of putting 
down for ever a ridiculous pretension, or of satisfy- 
ing their own minds as to the truth of the practice. 
But no : " The committee of the medical section 
declined entertaining the subject." As the pro- 
fessor at Padua refused to look through Galileo's 

* See Braid's " Neurypnology, considered in relation with Ani- 
mal Magnetism : illustrated by numerous cases of relief and cure 
of disease." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 167 

telescope at the moon ; — so these gentlemen at 
Manchester were unwilling to look at Mr. Braid's 
patients, for reasons that can only be known to 
themselves. Either they had some secret mis- 
givings, some fears touching their own conversion, 
some dread of having to unlearn much of their 
former acquirements, or the rules of the Association 
would not permit the arrangement, or their time, 
perhaps, at this important juncture was not quite 
at their disposal. As a committee of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science could 
scarcely be afraid of meeting facts, — let us see 
how the matter stood with them in respect to time. 
On turning, then, to a record of their proceedings *, 
we find, that the ?5 section was thinly attended," — 
that several tedious papers were read, most of 
which could have been studied more profitably at 
home, — and that out of the six days on which the 
Sections met, there were two on which no business 
at all was transacted before the one for medicine, 
some part of which time might at least have been 
surrendered to Mr. Braid and his experiments, 
even if the rules of the society forbade a more for- 
mal lecture. These "learned Thebans"had flitted 
from their homes and travelled many a long and 
weary mile, and what was their object ? Was it 
not the detection of error, the discovery of truth, 
and the good of human kind ? and might not 

* See Literary Gazette and Athenaeum for 1842. 
31 4 



168 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Mesmerism or Neurypnology fall under one of these 
classes ? Oh ! let us not be too severely critical : 
— the visit to Manchester was not wholly without 
fruit. While one party was listening to a learned 
treatise on the " Palpi of Spiders" by which the 
arachnologist " would be prevented from falling 
into the too common error of mistaking young spi- 
ders for old ones* " another section was instructed 
by certain " microscopic researches in fibre," and 
on the "therapeutic application of air-tight fa- 
brics." Released from these arduous duties, and 
this strain on their cerebral functions, our pro- 
fessors could only find repose by a promenade 
through the adjoining gardens ; here where Flora 
and Pomona vied with their most tempting gifts, 
and the eyes of beauty smiled reward on the 
learned labours of the lecturer |, who could expect 
even an anchorite to tear himself away, and find 
leisure for Mesmerism with all its cures ? And 
then came the banquet with its venison and its 
wines ; — and then the self-applauding speeches, 
where one Section bepraised the other ; and then 
followed music and the charm of song, till at length 
wearied out with this train of endless occupations, 
" Section E" could only recline their heads upon 
the pillow, with the self-satisfied assurance that 
they had not, like Titus, lost a day ! To be se- 



* See the reports in the Athenaeum. 

j- See Times Newspaper and Literary Gazette. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 169 

rious, there is something melancholy in the state 
of mind here exhibited. These papers have their 
uses, and are valuable. But after all, the "proper 
study of mankind is man ; " — the palpi of spiders 
are not so interesting as the nervous system of a 
patient ; and when a subject like Mesmerism pro- 
fesses to mitigate the maddening throes of pain, — 
to give relief to thousands, — and to effect a cure, 
where a cure had been pronounced impracticable, 
to see men of education like those at Manchester 
pass over to the other side with offended dignity 
rather than be spectators of the fact, is a scene 
both painful and humiliating. The question ran 
counter to all their previous views, — and so with 
sullen silence they declined to witness an art which 
promises to multiply their remedial resources 
to an extent, at this moment beyond calculation. 

Though Section E, however, declined to coun- 
enance Mr. Braid by their medical presence, a 
large body of visiters did not think his curious 
experiments beneath their notice, and his lec- 
tures were attended by a numerous and scientific 
audience. 

Turn again, for a third example, to the pro- 
ceedings of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical 
Society on a late occasion. * See the alarmed and 
almost frantic feelings with which certain parties 



1 See " Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations without 
Pain," &c, by Dr. Elliotson. (Bailliere.) 



170 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

discussed the remarkable report of the amputation 
of a man's thigh during the Mesmeric state. # See 
how anxious they were to put the matter down, 
and bury the fact in oblivion. A Bible thrown 
into an old Spanish convent, could not have more 
convulsed its inmates, than did this unfortunate 
treatise that learned assembly. Mr. Topham has 
much to answer for. The conscience of Mr. 
Ward must be weighed down with bitter self- 
reproach. True, these gentlemen established a 
great fact in physiology; true, they assisted an 
unhappy sufferer with unexampled relief during a 
formidable operation ; — but they cannot be other- 
wise than painfully mindful of the bile and bad 
blood they engendered amongst the members of 
the society on that unlucky evening. Poor Worn- 
bell, indeed, enjoyed a composing sleep during 
the horrors of amputation ; but contrast that with 
the sleepless feverish nights of the angry oppo- 
nents, and then what has humanity gained in the 
matter? The thing was "irrational," — was "ri- 
diculous," — was "impossible," and so what need 
was there for the Society to discuss the subject ? 
Like a country bench of double-barrelled squires 
assembled to convict a suspected offender against 
the game laws, this philosophical audience ar- 

* See " Account of a Case of successful Amputation of th 
Thigh during the Mesmeric State, without the Knowledge of 
the Patient." Read to the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, 
November, 1842, by W. Topham, Esq., and W. S. Ward, Esq. 
(Bailliere, Regent Street.) 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 171 

rived at a " foregone conclusion/' before the 
merits of the case had even been opened. The 
Mesineriser and the poacher must both be si- 
enced: — the one has no licence to kill, nor the 
other to cure ; and so defence or explanation are 
dike inadmissible. One gentleman declared that 
le would not believe the facts had he witnessed 
them himself. Another expressed his perfect sa- 
tisfaction with the condemnatory reports made 
by others, and par consequent, the needlessness 
that he should be present and examine them him- 
self! Really, in passing through the account of 
this debate, — in noting the anxiety of certain 
members to expunge all record of the proceedings 
from their minute-book, I could have fancied that 
I was reading the discussions of a knot of mendi- 
cant friars, terrified at the dawn of the Reforma- 
tion ; — I felt myself transplanted, as it were, into 
the Vatican, w T here was a letter from Luther, 
frightening the holy conclave from its propriety. 
All the time that I was reading the speeches of 
certain opponents, there kept involuntarily rising 
up in my mind the outcry of Demetrius, the 
Ephesian silversmith, " Our craft is in danger to 
be set at nought : and, Sirs, ye know that by this 
craft we have our wealth." (Acts, xix. v. 25. 27.) 
One would suppose that these gentlemen would 
remember the treatment of Harvey, the circulator, 
as he was termed; — the averted eye that at first 
was turned on Jenner; and the disbelief with 



172 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

which many great and mighty discoveries hay 
been received, and be more cautious and circum- 
spect for the future. Oh ! if a love of ancien 
usages, — if a hatred of new and unpalatabL 
truths is to bear away the bell, Oxford may now 
hide her diminished head, — Salamanca " pale he: 
uneffectual fires," — the doctors of the Sorbonn* 
part with their old pre-eminence, for competitors 
are stepping in from the " liberal professions,' 
able and willing to take the lead. And yet we 
are all aware of the sarcasms with which "th 
faculty " and the " philosophers" treat the " learnec 
ignorance " of the clergy, and their presumed dis- 
like to scientific inquiry ; and perhaps we are toe 
often a fair subject for such animadversion, mor< 
especially if many such sermons as the one 
preached at Liverpool, are delivered by us : but 
I can tell " the profession," in return, that 1 
should often have more hope of bringing home a 
new and important truth to the minds of a simple 
ignorant peasantry than of combating success 
fully the bigotry of the philosopher, and the pre- 
judices of an educated and scientific assembly 
Yes : save me from the credulity of the sceptic, 
— from the intolerance of the tolerant, — from 
the tyranny of the ultra-liberal ! Experience ha 
shown us some of the bitterest opponents of real 
freedom of conscience amongst the staunchest 
sticklers for religious liberty ; we daily see men, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 1^3 

vho will believe nothing, even upon the strongest 
estimony, in contradiction to their preconceived 
systems, believiiig everything against the veracity 
md competency of the most credible witnesses * ; 
-and here we have had a free-thinking council 
>pposed to freedom of inquiry, — and a body of 
gentlemen, whose whole professional career is 
)ased on experimental evidence, on one occasion 
leclining to witness facts, and upon another, 
thrown into a confusion, worse than that in King 
Agramont's campf, from the recital of a case, 
which, even if attended by a few erroneous con- 
tusions, was at least deserving of a candid in- 
vestigation. 



* " T would rather believe," said a surgeon to a friend of mine, 

that all Mesmerisers and their patients were impostors, than 

give credit to one of their facts, however well authenticated." 

You must rather believe," said an anti-mesmeric lecturer, " that 

all your wives and sisters and children are false, than think any 

of these cases true." 

f The wild and fanciful poet describes Discord as hastening 
with her bellows to blow up the strife : — 

" La Discordia „ . . 
Corre a pigliare i mantici di botto, 
Ed agli accesi fochi esca aggiungendo, 
Ed accendendone altri, fa salire 
Da molti cori un alto incendio d'ire." 

Orlando Fur., canto xxvii. 39. 

From all accounts there were no bellows wanted that evening 
n Berners Street. The fire was kindled before the match was 
applied. — Gibbon sneers about the " Monks of Magdalen," and 
the "port and prejudice" they imbibed. The monks of Mag- 
dalen, with their venerable president, may now turn the tables 
against their liberal scoffers. — What is the favourite beverage of 
the Chirurgical Society, I know not. A friend, more witty than 
wise, suggests that, to judge from the temper of the meeting, the 
potations that night must have been gin and bitters. 



174 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

It is the remark of an acute and observant 
friend, that no great reform or improvement in a 
profession has ever proceeded from its own mem- 
bers. One or two may have originated the idea ; 

— but the adoption of the plan has generally 
been forced on them from " without." This is 
eminently true in regard to ecclesiastical matters 
They were not the clergy but the laity that led 
on the movement in Church reform. The same 
may be said in regard to law. The illustrious 
Eomilly commenced his parliamentary career with 
propositions for an amendment of our criminal 
code ; but it is notorious how unpopular in West 
minster Hall were his suggestions; and it was 
public opinion alone that carried out his views 
Again, may the same remark be applied to the 
medical body. Men of a certain standing in the 
profession are unwilling to depart from the old 
routine; they are afraid of losing caste; they 
care not to unlearn their early teaching, and begin 
with some fresh laws of nature, of which they 
were unaware; and so, sooner than sacrifice 
themselves they sacrifice truth. It is thus in the 
instance of Mesmerism. It was a medical man 
that first discovered it ; but they were not me- 
dical men that took it up ; — and their attention, 

— must we say their unwilling attention, was at 
at last obtained, only through the firm attitude 
that their own patients often displayed on the 
question. And yet, even if Mesmerism had been 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 175 

an unreal phantom, — there were reasons why 
they need not have felt such shame in looking it 
impartially in the face. Great names could be 
numbered amongst its adherents. Some of the 
first men of our day, — the first in science and 
philosophy, have not blushed to express their 
trong convictions of its truth. That can be no 
common delusion upon a subject, on which La 
Place, the most profound and exact of mathe- 
maticians, could state, that "on his own prin- 
ciples he could not withhold his assent to it;" — 
and on which he could write, that " it would be 
unphilosophical to deny the existence of the phe- 
nomena, because in the present state of our know- 
ledge, their operations are yet inexplicable to 
us."* That can be no weak fancy, when Cuvier, 



* Mr. Chenevix states, in T the London Medical and Physical 
Journal, that he had more than one conversation with La Place 
upon Mesmerism, about 1816 and 1817, and that the expression 
of that great philosopher constantly was, " that the testimony in 
favour of the truth of Mesmerism, coming with such uniformity 
from enlightened men of many nations, who had no interest to 
deceive, and possessed no possible means of collusion, was such 
that, applying to it his own principles and formulas respecting 
human evidence, he could not withhold his assent to what was so 
strongly supported." The following are his own words, in his 
Essay on Probabilities : " Les phenomenes singuliers qui re- 
sultent de i'extreme sensibilite des nerfs dans quelques individus, 
ont donne naissance a diverses opinions sur l'existence d'un nouvel 
agent, que Ton a nomine magnetisme animal : * * * H est naturel 
de penser que Taction de ces causes est tres-faible, et qu'elle peut 
etre facilement troublee par des circonstances accidentelles; ainsi, 
parceque dans quelques cas, elle ne s'est point manifestee, on ne 
doit pas rejeter son existence. Nous sommes si loin de connaitre 
tous les agens de la nature, et leurs divers modes d'action, qu'il 
serait peu philosophique de nier les phenomenes, uniquement 



176 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

by common consent the first of modern naturalists, 
could say, that "the effects produced by Mes- 
merism no longer permit it to be doubted, that 
the proximity of two living bodies in certain 
positions and with certain actions, has a real result, 
independent of all participation of the imagin- 
ation." # That can be no weak or unworthy study, 
to which a Brougham, he whom all parties are 
anxious to claim as an ally, — he who has run the 
round of science, and explored each department of 
knowledge at once with a philosophic and critical 
spirit, could give the attention of his vast intellect, 
and not feel it a degradation to his judgment to 
be spoken of as a believer in its facts. That can 
be no vague notion, of which a Huf eland, — if 
not the first, in the very first rank of German phy- 
sicians, has expressed himself a firm and consci- 
entious supporter. The catalogue of able and 
superior men that could be found among the 



parcequ'ils sont inexplicable dans l'etat actuel de nos connais- 
sanees." — La Place, Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilites. 
Paris. 4th edition, p. 131. 

* This is Cuvier's own language : " Cependant les effets obtenus 
sur des personnes deja sans connaissance avant que Toperation 
commenc^t, — ceux qui ont lieu sur les autres personnes apres 
que 1'operation meme leur a fait perdre connoissance, et ceux que 
presentent les animaux, ne permettent gueres de douter, que la 
proximite de deux corps animes dans certaines positions et avec 
certains mouvements, n'ait an effet reel, independant de toute 
participation de l'imagination d'une des deux. II paroit assez 
clairement aussi que ces effets sont dus a une communication quel- 
conque qui s'etablit entre leurs systemes nerveux." — Cuvier, 
Anatomie Comparee, torn. ii. p. 117. " Du Systeme nerveux 
considere en action." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 177 

friends of the science would run on to " the crack 
of doom." From my own experience I assert, 
that those of my acquaintance who are its known 
and confessed believers, are as clear-headed, — as 
strong-minded, as sober-thinking, as free from 
that wild enthusiastic feeling which prompts men 
to catch at the newest fancy, as any individuals 
in the kingdom. All of them, I think without 
exception, were strong unbelievers, if not op- 
ponents, till they practically and experimentally 
looked into the question. Verily, if we are mis- 
taken, we belong to a goodly company ! We 
have plenty of comrades to keep us in counte- 
nance. We can bear a laugh at the number or 
quality of our friends. Let the wits, then, 
exhaust their raillery at our expense; let the 
prejudiced shake their heads and sneer ; let 
the timid and the cautious hold back for a sea- 
son in doubt. Truth, eternal truth, must be our 
motto. The more we dive into the subject, 
the more shall we have to learn ; the more the 
science is practised and employed, the more will 
the philanthropist have reason to rejoice at the 
virtues of the discovery: — and the more will the 
humble and thankful Christian be enabled to 
exclaim, " It is the gift of a merciful and allwise 
God!" 



N 



178 



CHAP. V. 

DANGERS Or MESMERISM, PHYSICAL AND MORAL. " HORROR " 

OF MESMERISM. DIFFICULTIES OF MESMERISM. HINT 

FOR YOUNGER MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY. 

But we have another and a third class of oppo- 
nents, widely different indeed in the quality of 
their objections from either of the two parties 
with whom we have been hitherto contending, 
whose antipathy to Mesmerism professes to arise 
from a consideration of its dangers. It is not on 
the irreligious character of Mesmerism that they 
dwell ; at that view of the question they shrug 
their shoulders and sneer, as if they themselves 
had never advanced it. It is not that they are 
unbelievers in Mesmerism : the facts brought 
home to their knowledge are so staggering, that 
they are ashamed to remember that they ever 
had their doubts. It is of the dangers of Mesmer- 
ism that they now speak : " It is so fearful a 
power," they say, — "so liable to be abused, — 
so pregnant with mischief, — no one is safe, — no 
one can answer for what may happen,-— its prac- 
tice ought to be prohibited:"— and all this is 
gravely stated by those with whom, but a few 
weeks before, we had been fighting, totis viribus, 
— in assertion of its reality. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 179 

Deleuze, in his practical work, says, " The anta- 
gonists of magnetism, after having decided that it 
did not exist, have declaimed against the dangers 
that accompany it." # Every Mesmeriser will 
confirm this statement from his own experience. 
It has happened to all of us, over and over again. 
I was on a visit with some friends last summer, 
whom I in vain endeavoured to convince of the 
truths of Mesmerism; an incredulous but polite 
smile settled on their faces : so perceiving that 
the subject was unwelcome, I passed on to an- 
other topic, I met them again in the course of 
two months. It was now their turn to begin : 
they were full of the subject : but it was alto- 
gether of its dangers that they now harangued. 
" Dangerous ! " I calmly observed, — " you sur- 
prise me : how can a thing that does not exist be 
dangerous?" "Oh," was the reply, "everybody 
knows that there is something in Mesmerism, and it 
is so very dangerous." 

The transition of these views on Mesmerism is 
as abrupt as Napoleon described the passage to 
be of the sublime to the ridiculous : " it is but a 
step." Extremes, in fact, are always meeting. 
One day there is nothing in Mesmerism : the 
next, a great deal too much. 

* " Les antagonistes du magnetisme, apres avoir prononce 
qu'il rtexiste pas, ont declame contre les dangers qui l'accompag- 
nent." — Deleuze, Instruction P., p. 265. 
N 2 



180 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

The first French commissioners, whose Report 
is supposed to prove the non-existence of Mes- 
merism, also speak of its dangers, and decide 
positively that its effects may be most serious. 
A novice in the first elements of logic would see, 
that a thing that does not exist, can be neither 
useful nor dangerous ; and hence we derive an 
additional corroboration, that it was not the pur- 
pose of the commissioners to do more than dis- 
prove the theory of the fluid. 

That Mesmerism has its dangers, must be ad- 
mitted : what good is there in nature free from 
some attendant evil ? what is there that folly 
or wickedness may not abuse ? Still I am per- 
suaded that the actual amount of these dangers is 
very greatly exaggerated. The invisibility of the 
agent, — our ignorance of the true springs of man's 
organisation, the novelty of the remedy, and our 
natural timidity at the employment of a new 
mysterious treatment, all these circumstances 
would cast a deeper shade of colouring over that 
danger which may really exist : — but having 
taken much pains to examine the subject, and 
discussed it often with some of the most experi- 
enced Mesmerisers, I feel assured that the appre- 
hensions generally entertained are to a great 
degree without foundation. Still it must be 
owned that Mesmerism has its dangers : and as a 
work that professes to meet all the popular ob- 
jections, would be incomplete without some allu- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 181 

sion to therm — we will state what they are, and 
how they may be met. 

The dangers may be divided into the physical 
and the moral. 

I would begin, however, with the remark, that 
Mesmerism is not a plaything for the idle and 
the curious. — It is not meant as a pastime for a 
dull day in the country. Because a sharp frost 
has set in, and the hounds cannot meet at cover, 
or a deluge of rain has imprisoned the listless 
sportsmen, and the young squire, to kill the 
dreary morning, tries his hand in the new art, and 
Mesmerises his sisters or their lady's maid, and 
something unpleasant occurs, is that to be laid to 
the door of Mesmerism ? It would appear from 
certain anecdotes, that animal magnetism is to 
supply the place of some of those old Christmas 
amusements, of which our altered habits have de- 
stroyed the charm ; and thus " philosophy in 
sport " is to become really a part of an evening's 
entertainment. How absurd and monstrous all 
this is ! And then grave ladies very naturally 
look solemn and forbidding, and make not a few 
unreasonable remarks on the impropriety of Mes- 
meric experiments. But who would think of 
vaccinating a whole family for a little domestic 
diversion ? who dreams of insinuating the lan- 
cet's point into the arm of some plethoric uncle, to 
see how the good gentleman would feel after a 
little festive depletion ? And why is Mesmerism 
N 3 



182 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

to be an exception to every rule of conduct on 
such a subject? As Mr. Colquhoun observes 
most judiciously, " In attempting to produce the 
magnetic phenomena, I would eminently caution 
individuals against all experiments of mere curi- 
osity. Whatever ludicrous ideas many persons 
may have been hitherto in the habit of associating 
with this subject, I can seriously assure them that 
experience has proved magnetism to be no trifling 

matter We must not recklessly attempt 

to handle the thunderbolt, or to play with the 
lightning of heaven. Like every higher gift 
conferred upon us by the Creator, the magnetic 
faculty ought to be exerted with judgment and 
discretion, and only for benevolent purposes" 
" We do not know," says Dr. Huf eland, " either 
the essence or the limits of this astonishing power: 
whoever, then, undertakes to direct this power, 
let him enter upon the duty with the most pro- 
found respect for the principle which he endea- 
vours to set in operation. Above all, let him 
beware of Magnetizing in sport. In medicine, the 
most indifferent remedy is injurious to persons in 
health ; still more so an agent which is perhaps 
the most active and energetic of all remedies." 
All these observations deserve serious attention : 
I would say even further, that every thing of a 
useless or jocose character connected with the 
practice, should be discountenanced in the strongest 
way : children should be especially warned against 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 183 

" playing at Mesmerism : " and if the above is 
what is meant by the opponents of magnetism in 
their remarks upon its dangerous consequences, 
I agree with them most cordially, — and have 
always done my utmost within my own circle 
to discourage such improper and discreditable 
trifling. 

This part of the subject, then, I at once dis- 
miss as foreign to the question. The abuse of a 
power is no argument against its use : and because 
Mesmerism is not a fit game for foolish girls to 
play with, this is no reason, why it should be 
preeminently hazardous, when adopted seriously 
as a remedial art. 

Still, even in this line, Mesmerism may have 
its dangers, especially when practised by the igno- 
rant and the timid. A nervous Mesmeriser is 
worse than a nervous patient. The calm col- 
lected manner of the judicious Magnetist will 
soothe the most agitated sleeper ; but even the 
tranquil repose of the deepest slumber may be 
disturbed by a sympathy with the frightened and 
unpractised manipulator. But what is there 
strange or unusual in this? why are not expe- 
rience and competency equally necessary in Mes- 
merism, as in every thing else ? who employs a 
raw surgeon for a formidable operation ? who 
sends for an untried dentist to extract a difficult 
and decayed eye-tooth? Skill, practice, knowledge 
are qualifications that are requisite in every de- 
N 4 



184 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

partment ; and in no treatment are coolness and 
presence of mind more essential than in the di- 
rection of the Mesmeric power ; a fact which 
ought to be evident to all when they reflect that 
this agent " penetrates the depths of the organism 
and the internal life of the nervous system, and 
may even affect the mind itself, and unsettle its 
ordinary relations." This is the language of the 
great Dr. Hufeland himself, in the cautions that 
he gives to the unwary Magnetiser. But even 
with the drawback of inexperience and ignorance, 
I know not that Mesmerism is so dangerous as 
much of the common medical practice of the pre- 
sent day. When we remember that such tre- 
mendous poisons as prussic acid and arsenic are 
among the favourite remedies of the modern 
school ; that our lives are at the mercy of an 
incautious physician in the first act of prescribing ; 
that an error in weight of the deadly ingredient 
may alter the whole character of the compound ; 
that a careless chemist may convert the most 
judicious prescription into a draught of death ; that 
a sleepy nurse may administer the wrong medi- 
cine ; — who can think of these and similar con- 
tingencies, and not tremble when he sees the 
physician with the pen in his hand ? These things 
are mentioned, — not to prove that Mesmerism 
has not its dangers ; — but to show the timid and 
unthinking opponent that the very system to 
which from custom he steadily adheres, has its 



MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 185 

evils and its hazards also, perhaps even greater 
than those of our ill-understood art. 

Still Mesmerism has its dangers. Among them 
I would more especially mention those that may 
arise out of the alarm of an inexperienced prac- 
titioner. If a change quite unexpected should 
take place in the sleeper, — if the trance should 
be prolonged to an unusual duration, — if con- 
vulsions, or fits, or violent pain (all, in every pro- 
bability, symptoms of the desired action) should 
come on; the inexpert Mesmeriser might take 
fright ; his fright would act sympathetically upon 
the sleeper ; great excitement and agitation would 
be the result ; this again would react on the Mes- 
meriser ; till from the mutual effect on each, very 
serious consequences might be produced. The 
health of the patient might be affected most 
alarmingly : but all this would be the fault, not 
of Mesmerism, — but of the ignorant nervous 
operator, who had undertaken a duty for which 
he was not prepared. 

In all these emergencies, the calm judicious 
Mesmeriser sees nothing to fear : he knows that 
the most violent hysteric action is often the sign 
of a welcome crisis ; — he knows that the most 
prolonged sleep — a sleep even of days, will wear 
itself out at last ; he knows that the most threat- 
ening language and aspect of the sleepwaker (like 
that of a person in a deranged condition) can be 
best met by coolness and kindness : he is conse- 



186 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

quently firm, collected, gentle ; his calmness and 
firmness act healthily on the patient ; and how- 
ever great may have been the excitement of the 
Mesmeric state, the patient is sure to awake out 
of his slumbers, refreshed and strengthened, with 
the mind beautifully composed, and the whole 
system renovated to an extraordinary degree. 

It is here not unadvisable to give a caution by 
the way. If the sleeper cannot be awakened by 
the usual methods, and the uneasiness of the 
Mesmeriser has acted with an unpleasant or ex- 
citing effect, to send for a medical man, who dis- 
believes in the science, and w^ould treat it as a 
common normal state, might be followed by the 
most serious consequences. I cannot impress my 
readers too strongly with the necessity of bearing 
this caution in mind. Calmness and patience 
would bring all round. 

Another point on which inexperience may be 
thrown off its guard, and through which very 
formidable results might arise, is the danger of an 
imperfect partial waking. With some patients 
it is not always easy to distinguish at first the 
half state from full and restored consciousness : 
the patient seems perfectly awakened, and says he 
is so ; and the unpractised operator would be apt 
to leave him. This is a condition of real danger: 
the patient has no more self-control, or manage- 
ment of his actions, than a child or idiot, and yet 
for a time will converse most sensibly, and recog- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 187 

nise every person present. I have seen this dis- 
tinctly in two patients. It happened to me one 
time with Anne Vials, whom I could not manage 
thoroughly to awaken : she said she was awake ; 
and she walked about the room, and eat and talked 
as usual. I was on the point of leaving her, being 
persuaded that she was awake, when the sound 
of something peculiar in her voice caught my ear ; 
I recognised it to be the tone of the sleeping, and 
not the waking state (for the tones are often 
different) ; and I soon had reason to discover that 
she was not awakened. The French call this state 
" un somnambulisme imparfait." Townshend, in 
his " Facts," mentions a case of the kind. It is 
not uncommon, and should be watched; as the 
patient might commit some action, serious in its 
consequences not only to himself but to others. 

Several other minor points might be mentioned ; 
for some of which I would refer the reader to the 
fuller work of Deleuze: his ^Practical Instruction" 
is a most useful book for the young Mesmeriser. 

Still I repeat that the physical dangers of Mes- 
merism are very greatly exaggerated ; and I would 
conclude this part of the subject with a noticeable 
fact: that in spite of the number of ignorant 
Mesmerisers that are taking up the subject, — in 
spite of the number of most delicate patients that 
have been placed under its influence, — in spite of 
the number of opponents that are anxiously on 
the look-out for a disastrous result — no well- 



188 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

authenticated fact of great and serious mischief 
has yet been named. I rather wonder that it is 
so ; Mesmerism must, like every thing else, have 
its drawbacks and its dangers. Still nothing very 
formidable has yet been publicly mentioned : now 
and then we read in the newspapers of a " fatal 
effect ; " but in a few days we find a paragraph 
saying that the patient is better than ever. Now 
and then we hear in our own circle of something 
deplorable, which, on examination, proves to be a 
mistake. I was told the other day of a gentle- 
man who had greatly injured the eyesight of one 
of his children by Mesmerism. I called and asked 
if it were true : he had never even Mesmerised 
one of his children; and nothing had been the 
matter with their eyes. And thus it generally is ; 
and several friends who have taken some pains to 
make the inquiry, have never yet been able to 
establish one case of serious injury or evil : still 
my opinion is, that Mesmerism has its dangers, 
and some, too, of rather an anxious kind. I say, 
therefore, to the inexperienced Mesmeriser, — " Be 
cautious, be circumspect; you are playing with a 
powerful and ill-understood agent ; and you are 
bound for the sake of the patient's safety to adopt 
every precaution that prudence can suggest." 

But there are certain dangers touching la morale 
to which Mesmerism is supposed to be peculiarly 
open, and respecting which allusion is often made 
in conversation. Much ignorance also exists on 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 189 

this point ; and here, too, it is necessary to dis- 
tinguish clearly as to what is intended by the 
charge. 

If it is meant, that under the pretext of Mes- 
merising, in a case where Mesmerism is not re- 
quired, parties can avail themselves of the occasion 
to commit an offence contre les bonnes mceurs, I 
am not careful to enter upon the objection. Men 
sometimes go to church from the most improper 
motives ; men sometimes read the Scriptures 
with no other view than that of finding food 
for ribaldry and unbelief ; still, as has been often 
said, who would shut up our churches or burn our 
Bibles on that account ? Again, we say the abuse 
of a thing proves nothing against its value. If 
parties, in sport or in thoughtlessness, throw them- 
selves into the power of an unprincipled acquaint- 
ance, with them lies the fault, and they must take 
the consequences. Still I have my doubts whe- 
ther Mesmerism does afford the easy opening for 
misconduct, with which it has been taxed. The 
deep sleep, or torpor, which would place the 
sleeper so completely at the mercy of the Mes- 
meriser, as to give an opportunity for evil, does 
not occur every day ; — and more generally, if 
not always, the Mesmeric state produces, on the 
part of the patients, such a high tone of spiri- 
tuality and sense of right, as to make them less 
than ever disposed to an acquiescence in what is 
wrong. 



190 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Still, into this view of the question I do not en- 
ter. Our question is, whether, in the treatment 
of the sick, and in regarding Mesmerism as a se- 
rious remedy, the influence be open to objections 
on the score of morality and les bienseances ? I 
answer, in the most unhesitating way, to no objec- 
tions whatsoever. In Mesmerism, as in every thing 
else, certain precautions and regulations are, of 
course, to be adopted ; and in default of those pre- 
cautions, why is the science to be blamed for the 
neglect of its own rules ? Who sends for a low 
pettifogging attorney to make his will, or conduct 
an important lawsuit ? who deposits his money 
with a banker that offers ten per cent, interest with 
no visible capital at command? who admits an 
unprincipled physician into his house ? Only let 
similar safeguards be employed in Mesmerism ; 
and nothing need be feared. — Not only should the 
Mesmeriser be a person of character, of known 
and established principle ; but even then it is the 
rule that the process should be conducted in the 
presence of a third party. All Mesmerisers re- 
quire an attention to this rule where it can be ob- 
served. Patients have it in their power to have 
any of their relations present when they like. — 
Let this regulation be remembered and carried 
out ; and where is the objection ? Not only is 
every needful security obtained by this course, 
but "the appearance, even, of evil" is avoided; 
and the good work cannot be ill-spoken of, or mis- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 191 

represented by the malicious neighbour or the can- 
did friend. 

Another objection is, that even in the presence 
of a third party the process is one, qui blesse les 
convenances; and that the treatment is what a father 
or brother would feel a pain in witnessing. Never 
was there a more unfounded mistake. I have seen 
a good deal of Mesmerism, and with different Mes- 
merisers ; and never observed any thing to which 
the most scrupulous delicacy could object. An 
evil-disposed chemist may administer a valuable 
drug in an improper way, and with an improper 
object; — but what argument is that against the 
drug ? Choose a Mesmeriser of character, and 
choose a confidential friend or relative for a wit- 
ness, and you have every guarantee that the 
management of the case will be such as the most 
fastidious would require. 

Another objection is, that the sleeper is placed 
in an undesirable state of feeling in regard to the 
Mesmeriser ; that there is an attraction towards 
him, — something amounting to affection, or even 
love ; and that this state of mind or feeling reduces 
the patient to an improper dependence on the will 
of another. That, in the Mesmeric state, the 
sympathy between the Mesmeriser and the sleeper 
is powerful and extraordinary, we all know ; it is 
one of the most curious phenomena. The sensi- 
bility that is then produced, is singular in the 
extreme. But the feeling is rather that which 



192 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

exists between two sisters than any thing else ; it 
is a feeling which has regard to the happiness, and 
the state of moral being of the Mesmeriser ; which 
is alive to injuries or pain inflicted on him, — 
which desires his well-being here and hereafter. 
That it goes in any way beyond this is a mistake. 
Nay, as was before remarked, so far from the 
Mesmeric sleep producing a state of feeling incon- 
sistent with what is right, it is considered by the 
most experienced operators, that a great increase 
of the moral perceptions is created and brought 
out ; and that if the Mesmeriser were capable of 
commanding an improper or reprehensible act, the 
patient would revolt from an obedience to his will, 
with a language and manner even more decided 
and peremptory than when in a waking state.! 
And in confirmation of this view, I can decidedlj 
state from observation, that the intellectual facul- 
ties are surprisingly increased and developed ir 
the sleep; — so much so, as to lead to the opinior 
that there is a general rise and exaltation of the\ 
whole moral being when under the Mesmeric inJ 
fluence. Be this, however, as it may, — and be the 
relation between the Mesmeriser and the patient 
however peculiar, the whole sympathy and attract 
tion are at an end and forgotten the moment the 
sleeper is awakened into actual existence. 

Another objection is the facility with whichl 
unconscious parties can be put to sleep against 
their will, — that "no one is safe, — no one car 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 193 

? eel sure as to what may happen, and that a pow- 
erful Mesmeriser has his whole acquaintance under 
his command." This is a view entertained anions 
the nervous and the timid; — but one more ground- 
less can hardly be mentioned. Except in certain 
most rare cases of extreme sensibility, the Mes- 
meric sleep could not be induced against the will 
or consciousness of the party Mesmerised. Cer- 
tain conditions are requisite. Silence and stillness 
are among the most indispensable. It may often 
require half an hour of the most profound repose, 
before any somnolency can be obtained ; and with 
many patients the Mesmeric action must be re- 
newed for several days in succession before any 
effect be procured. The whole objection, there- 
fore, is so absurd, that no notice of it would be 
necessary, were it not that the opinion on this 
point is so very universal, and one that has led 
the superstitious to their worst apprehensions 
against the science. 

Somewhat akin to the last objection is another 
class of feelings that should not be passed over ; 
I mean a vague undefined "horror" of Mesmerism 
generally, a mysterious dislike to it, — an opposi- 
tion which the party objecting would find difficult 
to put into a tangible shape, but which yet fills 
the mind with an unpleasant sensation respecting 
it. This is distinct from an opinion of its irreli- 
gious or Satanic character ; without adopting that 
o 



194 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

view of the subject, many persons regard Mes- 
merism with an indistinct and painful abhorrence. 
Here, again, we must distinguish and clearly un- 
derstand what they do dislike. If they dislike the 
abuses to which the practice is liable, if they 
dislike to see it made the subject for trick and 
foolish experiment, — we can inform them that all 
right-minded Mesmerisers participate strongly in 
their feelings, and hold such conduct as most re- 
volting and wicked. But if they dislike to see a 
racking pain removed by it, — to see the feverish 
sleepless invalid enjoying a balmy slumber by its 
aid, — to see the nervous excited patient restored 
to comfort and repose, — surely their feelings can 
only arise from prejudice, or rather from the no- 
velty and freshness of the art. It is nothing else 
than what is even yet experienced among the un- 
educated classes respecting vaccination. Large 
numbers entertain a " horror" of this remedy. 
How often has the wife of a labouring-man told 
me that she would not have her child infected with 
the disease of a cow ! It is objectionable to her, 
only because it is strange. And so is it with the 
present aversion to Mesmerism. Habit and ob- 
servation will soon remove this feeling. The 
strangeness will pass away. People will soon 
perceive what a simple, easy, and natural process 
Mesmerism is ; and when, day after day, they shall 
be privileged to witness some dear and beloved 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 195 

relative relieved or comforted by its means, — or 
when they themselves, after the agonies of pain, 
shall have found a respite or a cure, their horror 
will soon be turned into gratitude to the Author 
of all good, and with myself they will exclaim 
that Mesmerism is the gift of God ! 

But though the dangers of Mesmerism have 
Deen magnified into an importance which they do 
not deserve, — and which, for the most part could 
be avoided by prudence, still our science has its 
Difficulties. These difficulties somewhat arise from 
the infancy of the practice, and which the ex- 
perience of a few years will tend to diminish; 
.till they are considerable. It is easy to say to 
lome unhappy sufferer, whom all the usual me- 
thods of the healing art have failed to benefit, 
" Go and be Mesmerised," — the difficulty is to 
find a Mesmeriser. They are not so easily ob- 
ained. The highest qualifications are requisite. 
Added to which the treatment of a chronic case 
generally demands a sacrifice of time, which^ even 
f men have the inclination, they have not always 
he leisure to bestow. Experience and knowledge 
re also indispensable : I should be sorry to place 
very delicate patient into the hands of an un- 
ractised Mesmeriser. Temper, patience, and 
resence of mind are also requisites ; and as we 
efore stated, character and right principle must 
ot be forgotten. — Here then are a number of 
o 2 



I'jr 



196 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

qualities desirable for the formation of a com- 
petent Mesmeriser, and which are not to be pro 
cured at a moment's warning. And this, for the 
present, throws a difficulty in the work. It re 
tards its course of more extended usefulness. Still 
time will correct this inconvenience. What the 
public demands, the public will always find pro 
videcl ere long. As there is every certainty that 
Mesmerism will shortly take its rank among the 
established branches of the medical art, a supply 
of qualified practitioners will be soon forthcoming. 
Our difficulties are but temporary. Many junior 
members of the profession will devote themselves 
to the study, and obtain a standing in society by 
their experience and success. Others, whose time 
is less at their command, will only give a general 
superintendence ; while the actual treatment will 
be conducted by pupils, specially instructed for 
the work. Nurses will be taught to Mesmerise. 
Students in the hospitals will gradually bring 
themselves into notice by a useful exercise of theii 
power ; and when the drag-chain, which hinder^ 
the progress of the good cause, shall be removec 
by the retirement of the present Lecturers anc 
Managers, these invaluable public institutions wil 
become at the very request of the subscribers 
schools for the practice of the Mesmeric science 
In short, every thing looks fair and promising 
Our obstacles are abating every day. Prejudic 
is becoming more and more silent. Fanaticisn 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 197 

is retiring to a few select quarters. Ridicule is 
losing the sharpness of its edge. The timid begin 
to speak. The opponents display greater anger 
and abuse. A general interest is awakened. We 
have evidently reached a crisis. Our difficulties 
have been long and many : but 

" Time and the hour run through the roughest day ! " 



O 3 



198 



CHAP. VI. 

MESMERIC CURES AND MIRACLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

COMPARISON BETWEEN THEM. FEARS OF THE CHRISTIAN 

GROUNDLESS. TOUCH OF THE MESMERISER. CLAIR- 
VOYANCE NOT MIRACULOUS. 

But a more anxious consideration remains behind. 
The very truthfulness of Mesmerism carries along 
with it a perplexing apprehension. Its dangers 
may be proved in great measure chimerical ; — its 
difficulties may be surmounted ; — its curative 
powers may be admitted in all their magnitude ; 
— the charge of an evil agency may be re - 
jected as the product of that heated fancy which 
invades the mind at the appearance of novelty ; — 
and yet well-regulated minds may approach the 
discussion with a distressing reluctance. Another 
argument presents itself. The subject appears to 
trench on the most sacred ground. It threatens 
to work a revolution in the most awful questions 
that can interest man. It unsettles the very 
groundwork of his faith. Such extraordinary 
statements'are advanced, — such unexpected laws 
are developed in nature, — such mysterious facts 
are given, — that old-accustomed principles of 
belief are shaken to their centre, and the piety of 
the Christian trembles at the result. A startling 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 199 

consequeii ce is at hand. If the facts of Mesmerism 
be not miraculous, — if they be no otherwise mar- 
vellous than as their strangeness makes them so, 
and if custom will soon reduce this marvellousness 
to an every-day occurrence, — how do all these 
positions bear upon the miracles related in Scrip- 
ture ? Are we not lowering their value ? Is not 
the very keystone on w T hich our faith is built, 
loosened, if not removed ? If the course of nature 
be not suspended by the action of Mesmerism, 
how can we show that the wonders of old time 
must not fall back to the same shrunken propor- 
tions, and that the truths of Revelation do not 
totter at their base ? 

This is no unreal charge wantonly thrust for- 
ward for controversial display, and creating the 
very evil it professes to deprecate ; — but the ex- 
pression of an actual living opinion which is be- 
ginning to assume a serious shape and being. It 
is no longer whispered in the salons of science 
that the tendencies of Mesmerism go to uphold the 
Deist in his unhappy belief, the proposition is 
triumphantly advanced in the publications of the 
infidel ; and the Christian himself often feels an 
anxious misgiving which deters him from a bold 
investigation of the fact. The position has been 
strongly stated to me by the two opposite sects. 
" If, 5 ' said a friend, " you really have faith in the 
reality of the wondrous cures of which you make 
mention, — do you not see the dangerous ground 
O 4 



200 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

yon are treading. — You cannot stop where you 
will. If I believe in Mesmerism, I must disbelieve 
all that I have hitherto held as sacred and divine." 
" Follow out your convictions/' said a gentleman 
of the other school, " and flinch not at their con- 
sequence. The reputed miracles of Scripture 
were but the result of strong Mesmeric power. 
Christ only raised the dead by Mesmerism." 
And thus has it ever been in the history of the 
world. And thus has every new discovery been 
dreaded or vaunted, according to the respective 
point from which it has been viewed by the 
friends or adversaries of religion. Thus was it 
with astronomy, — with chemistry, — with geo- 
logy, — with phrenology. — The Bible speaks 
of the rising of the sun; but Copernicus and 
Galileo were charged with upsetting the Bible, 
for they proved that the sun was the centre of its 
system, and consequently did not rise to gladden 
the earth. The theory of another hemisphere 
was heretical for a season, and Columbus was in 
his turn taxed with weakening the validity of 
Scripture. Cuvier, in like manner, was treated 
as the antagonist of Moses : and Gall was accused 
of leading his followers to a belief in the coarsest 
materialism. And thus it went on for a season. 
Men trembled at the truth ; and the truth itself 
lay hid behind the mists of a partial knowledge 
and discovery. Soon, however, a brighter state 
of things came on. Profounder researches dis- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 201 

pelled the anxiety of the timid. Faith and 
science were not found incompatible. Revelation 
and matter had but one and the same divine 
original. The first of philosophers were among 
the humblest of Christians ; and the most aspiring 
tudent of the laws of nature has not blushed to 
bow in lowliest adoration before the Word of 
Life. And thus will it be with Mesmerism. 
The discovery of this mighty power will form no 
exception to the other departments of science. 
He, who spake as never man spake, wrought 
also as man has never been able to imitate : and 
while the Scriptural reader must feel in his heart 
an internal evidence of the truth of that book on 
which he places all his hopes, with the conviction 
that doctrines so pure, — so lovely, could proceed 
from nothing short of a heavenly source, even 
so will he perceive in the miracles of his blessed 
Lord an inseparable pledge of the divinity of His 
mission, for that no one could do such things as 
Christ did, except God were with him ! 

What, then, it is asked, is the resemblance that 
exists between the miracles of the Saviour and 
the wonders of Mesmerism ? We answer con- 
fidently, none whatever. An impassable gulf 
divides them. Both, indeed, proceed from the 
same Eternal Being; but the Mesmeric pheno- 
mena are nothing else than the product of a 
simple power in nature ; while the marvels of 
Scripture arose from an interruption of those 



202 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

laws by which the government of the universe 
has been administered from creation : and this 
position, with Grod's grace, I proceed to prove. 

I commence with a consideration of those mira- 
cles, to which the wildest dreams of the most en- 
thusiastic Mesmeriser pretend not to have made 
approach. And here, it will be observed, we as- 
sume that the reader is a Christian, — that he be- 
lieves that the facts recorded in the Gospels did 
take place and are true, and that his only question 
is, how far the Divine origin of those facts is 
shaken by what has occurred in these latter days 
Into the matter of evidence, therefore, we do no1 
enter. Paley's incomparable work has exhaustec 
the subject, and refuted every doubt. To Paley 
therefore, we refer the wavering heart. But oui 
present inquiry is, whether there be any counter 
claims on our attention, from facts evincing equa 
power, — and supported by evidence equally con 
elusive.* 

The " beginning of miracles, with which Jesu 
manifested forth his glory," was the change o 
water into wine. He did not command the sb 
stone water-pots to be first emptied of the water 
and then replenished them with wine ; — but h 
ordered the empty vessels to be previously fillec 

* Those who are indisposed for the study of Paley's longe 
work, will find an admirable compendium of the whole subject i 
a small volume, called " Lectures on the Evidence from Miracles, 
by the Rev. R. C. Coxe, the present learned and excellent Vic; 
of Newcastle. ( Rivingtons. ) 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 203 

with water ; and from these vessels, which were 
filled up to the brim," the servants were in- 
stnicted to draw forth, and bear to the governor 
of the feast ; and a quantity of water, being sup- 
posed, upon the smallest computation, to be above 
a hogshead, was discovered by the guests to be 
converted into wine. — Mesmerism could have no 
agency here. The fact admits of no other expla- 
nation than that of being a miraculous and super- 
natural work. 

We next come to the miraculous draught of 
fishes. This occurred twice : once at the com- 
mencement of Christ's ministry, and once after 
his resurrection. Twice had the fishermen been 
toiling all the night, and caught nothing. At the 
command of Jesus, they let down their nets, and 
inclose the first time so extraordinary a draught, 
that their nets brake, and their boats were begin- 
ning to sink. On the second occasion, they were 
hardly able to draw the net to land for the multi- 
tude and size of the fishes ; and yet it is men- 
tioned by the Evangelist as an additional wonder, 
that the net was not broken. Now we cannot, 
perhaps, strictly describe a fact like this as beyond 
nature, for such a thing might happen ; but it is 
not according to nature. Nothing like it has ever 
been seen, before or since. It is, therefore, con- 
trary to the order of nature, — contrary to the 
general laws of nature. And when an event like 
this, which no natural causes have produced at 



204 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

any other time, occurred twice in the history of 
one man, we are justified in saying that it could 
be no peculiar or fortunate coincidence, — but a 
preternatural fact, which can be classed under no 
other head than that of the miraculous. 

The next miracle to be noticed is the instant 
stilling of a tempest on the Lake of Gennesareth, 
— a tempest so violent that the waves were break- 
ing over the ship. Dr. E . Clarke in his Travels 
mentions, that when adverse winds, sweeping 
from the mountains with the force of a hurricane, 
meet the strong current of the waters, which is 
formed by the river Jordan passing through the 
lake, a dangerous sea is at once raised. Now 
some such a hurricane Christ and his disciples en- 
countered ; and he stilled it in a moment ; for 
there was a "great calm" The "raging of the 
water " and the violence of the winds subsided at 
once. Now this was clearly miraculous. By a 
singular accident, the wind might have been sud- 
denly hushed at the very same moment that Jesus 
spoke, but this fortuitous calm would not also 
have extended to the waters. Whoever has been 
to sea, or whoever has witnessed a storm at sea, 
knows full well that it requires a certain interval 
of time for the waves to cease to swell after the 
winds have ceased to blow. It is never a great 
hurricane in one moment, and a glassy surface in 
the next. The fishermen unaccustomed to such 
a transition, " marvelled," as well they might, and 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 205 

demanded among themselves "what manner of 
man" Christ was. And the only answer is, a 
Man from God ! Where is Mesmerism here ? 

The feeding of great multitudes on ttvo occasions 
with a few loaves and fishes, surpasses all bounds 
of exaggeration also. There could be no false per- 
ception here. The statement does not admit of the 
supposition of a fortunate experiment. As Leslie 
says, that " one small loaf of bread should be so 
multiplied in the breaking, as not only in appear- 
ance and to the eye, but truly and really to satisfy 
the appetites of a thousand hungry persons, and 
that the fragments should be much more than the 
bread was at first," is a fact which can admit of 
no explanation. And while we do not know the 
precise point at which the powers of nature ter- 
minate, as in the case of Mesmerism, we can de- 
clare unhesitatingly, that such a multiplication of 
food is beyond the reach of a natural cause, and 
that here we have again a manifest interposition 
of the power of God. 

The walking upon the sea is a plain fact which 
admits of no explanation. It is a statement in 
which there could be neither mistake nor exag- 
geration. The ship was " in the midst of the sea," 
and he walked to them. He " walked upon the 
sea." The ship was twenty or thirty furlongs 
distant from the shore, i. e. more than three miles, 
and he walked to them. St. Peter also walked 
upon the sea to meet him, and, " beginning to 



206 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

sink/' was saved by Jesus catching him by the 
arm. The miracle is mentioned by three Evan- 
gelists, and most fully by St. Matthew. The same 
word in the original, which is used by St. Mark, 
in his sixth chapter (verse 47.), for describing 
Jesus as being u on the land," is used by him and 
St. John, when they speak of him as walking 
" on the sea." No statement in the New Testa- 
ment will admit of a closer or more critical 
examination than will this. And what confirms 
the miraculous character of the action is the fact, 
that the disciples seem to have been more im- 
pressed by this than by any preceding miracle, 
for they " worshipped " him, St. Matthew says, in 
consequence, and declared that " of a truth he 
was the Son of God." 

" The Transfiguration of the Saviour is a fact, 
also, which admits of no softening explanation. 
It happened not at night but in broad day ; • — not 
in a corner, — but on the very top of a mountain. 
The brightness and glory were more than the 
faculties of the spectators were able to endure. 
A celestial voice was heard, speaking to Jesus. 
The disciples were so overpowered with all that 
took place, that they flung themselves with their 
faces on the ground, and so remained till the 
Saviour touched them and bade them rise. And 
St. Peter expressly refers to the wonders of this 
day, as a special proof that the Gospel was " no 
cunningly devised fable." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 207 

The drying up of the fig-tree is a fact to which 
10 Mesmeric power makes the most distant ap- 
proach. Jesus spoke, and the fig-tree withered 
away instantly from the roots. M How soon" said 
the disciples, "is the tree withered!" 

The raisino; of the dead on three distinct occasions 
s explained by the modern unbeliever as the re- 
ival of a sleeping person out of a trance. The 
different facts of each case put together contradict 
the opinion. Jesus meets the dead son of the 
widow of Nain, humanly speaking by accident, 
is he is carried out on his bier. He at once 
approaches and bids the young man arise ; " and 
ae that was dead sat up, and began to speak." 
Nfow, on the supposition that the mother and 
the numerous friends of this young man (for 
iC much people " were in attendance, and the body 
was not inclosed in a coffin, but carried openly 
on a litter, as is the way in the East), on the 
upposition that all were deceived, and that the 
young man was only entranced, can we suppose, 
with any degree of reason, that in the two re- 
maining instances the relations and domestics 
were also under a delusion ? Let us take, then, 
the case of the ruler's daughter. Jesus is sud- 
denly invited by Jairus to his house to heal his 
child. In the mean time death seizes his victim ; 
,nd so undeniable are the signs of dissolution, that 
he family are anxious that Jesus should retire 
nd be no further inconvenienced. " Trouble 



208 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

not the Master, for she is dead." It would be s 
singular coincidence if this also were a trance. 
But Jesus, before he has even entered the house 01 
seen the body, pronounces that the maiden shal 
live and be "made whole." But we have a thirc 
instance : the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus hac 
been in his grave four days. When the stone 
was removed from the cave, and as soon as Jesus 
spoke, that instant Lazarus came forth bounc 
hand and foot in grave clothes, and his fac 
fastened over with a napkin. The restoration 
was instantaneous and complete. He did not 
merely move, and speak, and die again. He die 
not gradually and with further assistance come to 
himself; but he whose corpse was supposed to be 
already in an offensive state of decay, walkec 
forth at once from the tomb, returned home to 
his family, and lived and was seen alive a long time 
after. Now upon an examination of the above, 
this train of questions suggests itself. What 
probability is there, that all the attendants and 
relatives in these three cases were equally under 
a deception ? Is it meant that all who die ar 
only in a trance ; and if not, what reason is ther 
to show that these three persons were exclusive! 
in a trance more than any others ? How should 
Jesus, if only a man, know before he had even seen 
them, that Lazarus and the ruler's daughter were 
only entranced? Supposing after all that they 
had been dead, and did not rise forth, would not 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 209 

the power of Jesus have been proved null and 
void ? The same remark applies to the son of the 
widow of Nairn Jesus, as a mere man, dared 
not have risked the chances of a failure, unless it 
be said that a trance is a more common occurrence 
than a death. The unbeliever, however, says that 
these three persons were not really dead, but only 
in appearance. From their own statement, here 
then were three of the most curious coincidences, 
and all in the course of two years. The mere 
recurrence of the fact refutes the theory. This is 
the dilemma : if they were really dead, none but 
a olivine power could raise them, and that by a 
miracle ; — if they were only entranced, how 
could Jesus, if but a mere man, know it ? and not 
mowing it of a certainty, how would he venture 
on the hazardous experiment of placing his repu- 
tation on the issue of such a chance ? Never was 
an hypothesis built on a more untenable position. 
We will not enter upon an examination of the 
question that naturally presents itself in the next 
place, as to whether the Saviour was himself also 
in a trance. No one fact is better established in 
the whole Gospel history, than the re-appearance 
of Christ after the crucifixion. If that fact be 
not true, there is an end of human evidence for 
ever. Was He also, we ask then, in a trance 
vhen hanging on the cross, and when laid in the 
omb by Joseph of Arimathsea ? The question 
p 



210 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

answers itself: it is too monstrous to need refu- 
tation. 

Here, then, we have examined in detail a class 
of miracles in the New Testament, to which the 
proudest results of the Mesmeric power offer not 
the most distant resemblance. And let no one 
say, that this examination was idle, — that it is 
foreign to the subject, — that we " fight, as one 
that beateth the air." Nothing is useless, by 
which the faith of the believer may be strength- 
ened, and the misgivings of the anxious heart be 
quenched as they arise. The question of Scrip- 
ture evidence * has within these few years shifted 
ground. The charge of enthusiasm, of exag- 
geration, of falsehood is now seldom heard. A 
new position is adopted by the opponent. The 
facts recorded in the Gospels are at once ad- 
mitted, — their narrators are allowed to be truth- 
ful intelligent men, — but the w r onders they 
relate are referred to the operation of an adequate 
natural cause, — a cause of which the spectators 
had not then the remotest suspicion, but which is 
amply sufficient to explain their existence and 
effect. This uatural cause, they say, is Mesmerism. 
The facts are old, but the principle is newly dis- 
covered. And knowing myself that Mesmerism 

* " Christian Truth," says Dr. Hawkins, the present learned 
Provost of Oriel College, when speaking of the examination of 
the Christian Evidences, — "is a subject ever new, and of the 
deepest interest to each individual man in each successive genera- 
tion." — Bampton Lectures, p. 225. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 211 

is a living reality, — knowing that its powers 
reach to an unsuspected extent, — knowing that 
the faith of many has been disturbed by this dis- 
covery, I have thought it essential to analyse the 
question closely, and place the subject in its true 
colours. If I could not say how far Mesmerism 
does go, I have at least shown how far it does not 
go. The inquiry has commenced by an examina- 
tion of facts, to which no approximation, even in 
the faintest degree, has ever been made by the 
Mesmeric power. If the matter stopped here, 
sufficient would have been said to prove the 
Divine Mission of the Lord Jesus, and to show 
that He was a teacher sent from God. But we 
now proceed to an investigation into those miracles 
of a curative character, to which a greater re- 
semblance with this new power is supposed to 
exist. 

And here it is at once asserted, that the Mes- 
meric cures are something very extraordinary. 
For the convenience of the present argument, we 
do not fall back from that position. They have 
often been most wonderful. The treatment has 
often and often been efficacious, where no other 
remedy could succeed. This is admitted in the 
ullest and most unequivocal manner. Inde- 
pendent, moreover, of the general power, which 
common in a degree to most men, certain per- 
sons have been physically gifted with a peculiar 
virtue of a very unusual character. A denial of 
p 2 



212 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

the fact cannot alter it. The evidence on this 
point is too authentic to be questioned. Valen- 
tine Greatrakes, an Irish gentleman who lived 
in the seventeenth century, — De Loutherbourgh 
the well-known painter, Gassner a Roman Ca- 
tholic priest in Suabia, an English gardener 
named Levret, and several other parties could all 
be mentioned, whose powers of cure by mani- 
pulation and magnetic action were something 
very peculiar. Their patients were most nu- 
merous. All sorts of diseases were relieved by 
them. The then Bishop of Deny, speaking of 
Greatrakes, says, " There is something in the 
power more than ordinary" Still with the very 
largest allowance for the extent and variety of 
the effects, they all fall very far short of being 
miraculous ; — they all fall very far short of the 
Gospel wonders. " The cure often did not suc- 
ceed, but by reiterated touches ; the patients often 
relapsed ; he failed frequently ; he can do no- 
thing where there is any decay in nature, and 
many distempers are not at all obedient to his 
touch." This was said of Greatrakes; and the 
same applies to every other Mesmerist of whom I 
have ever heard. The most successful prac- 
titioner has never laid claim to the possession of 
an infallible and universal power. He has never 
pledged himself beforehand, in every possible 
case to produce a cure. If he have succeeded in 
ninety-nine cases, he has failed in the hundredth 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 213 

If he have procured a lasting benefit in many 
patients, the relief is often but temporary in 
others. Here, then, in the first place, is the wide 
and immeasurable interval that separates the 
wonders of the Mesmeriser from the marvels of 
the Redeemer of Israel. No one ever sought 
His face in vain. No one ever went unto Him, 
and was cast out unrelieved. The word of pro- 
mise that went forth from His lips, never re- 
turned unto Him void. His language was de- 
cisive and with authority ; His touch was in its 
effect certain, foreknown, invariable; His sa- 
native power extended to every pain, — to every 
complication of disease. Nothing can be more 
decisive than the testimony of Scripture on this 
point. To use Paley's happy expression, there 
was nothing tentative or experimental in the man- 
ner. " There is nothing in the Gospel narrative," 
says he, " which can allow us to believe, that 
Christ attempted cures in many instances, and 
succeeded in a few; or that he ever made the 
attempt in vain." And the Gospel history con- 
firms this position. " He healed all that were 
sick." (Matt, c.viii. v. 16.) St. Luke says that 
" All they that had any sick with divers diseases 
brought them unto him: and he laid his hands 
on every one of them and healed them." (c. iv. 
v. 40.). St. Matthew again says that " He went 
about all Galilee, — healing all manner of sick- 
ness and all manner of disease among the people." 
p 3 



214 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

" And they brought unto him all sick people, 
that were taken with divers diseases and tor- 
ments, and those which were lunatic and those 
that had the palsy, and he healed them" (c. iv. 
vv. 23, 24.). Again we read, that " great multitudes 
came unto him, having with them those that were 
lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and 
cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them" 
(Matt. c. xv. Vc 30.). There was no exception that 
we read of, in any instance. Here, then, in the 
first place is one distinguishing characteristic of 
the Christian cures, the universality of the suc- 
cess, wherever the attempt was made. 

We now come, in the next place, to a second 
and most material distinction, the class of cures 
effected by either party. In Mesmerism, the 
diseases subdued have been of a very remarkable 
character ; tic-douloureux, fearful epileptic fits, 
brain fever, derangement, deafness, weakness in 
the eyes, neuralgic pains of all kinds, loss of voice, 
paralysis, fevers, and a variety of other disorders ; 
cures have been effected where all other means 
have failed ; still all these fall immeasurably short 
of the miraculous effects recorded in Scripture. — 
Cures of a far higher order are there related ; 
cures, where the limbs or members had been 
organically injured, — cures where the injury had 
dated from the birth of the party. And here to 
mark the difference more strongly, it is necessary 
to introduce a third and even greater distinction, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 215 

viz., the period of time in which the benefit was 
produced. In Mesmerism the relief has been 
often most rapid ; in a quarter of an hour pain 
has begun to give way, and has been even ex- 
pelled; in a first sitting a disorder has been 
removed ; yet, even rapid as has been the thera- 
peutic power of the Mesmeriser, it is idle to com- 
pare it to the instantaneous, — to the magical 
change that followed on the touch and the voice 
of the Saviour. Christ " spake the word," and 
quicker than thought a complete revolution took 
place in the brain, in the blood, or in the struc- 
ture of the sufferer. What was wanting, w T as 
supplied ; what was weakened, was renewed ; 
what was broken, was made whole ; and that, too, 
in an instant of time. In the twinkling of an 
eye, a mass of diseased and putrefying sores be- 
came " as the flesh of a little child," in the bloom 
of health. The combination is very noticeable, 
and marks the miraculous character. In Mes- 
merism I have heard of more than one instance, 
where a rheumatism of many years standing has 
been cured at the first seance, as soon as the mag- 
netic medium had passed into the patient's system ; 
perhaps even greater and more expeditious effects 
may be named : still, let them be compared to 
the miracles of the New Testament in regard to 
the class of diseases and the instantaneous cha- 
racter of the cure, and what resemblance is there ? 
Peter's wife's mother is confined to her bed 
p 4 



216 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

with a fever ; Christ takes her by the hand ; the 
fever immediately leaves her ; no lassitude, the 
usual consequence of feverish action, remains; 
for she arises and ministers to them at their meat. 

Eleven specific cases of a cure of leprosy are 
recorded. The leprosy is a disease beyond all 
description fearful; by some it is thought in- 
curable. The skin and flesh are one mass of 
corruption. To effect a cure, therefore, a change 
must take place in the whole current of the blood. 
In the first cure related, the leprosy " immediately 
departed." In the cases of the other ten lepers, 
they were all cured, at once on their quitting 
Jesus, and in their way to the priests. 

Many important cures of paralysis are men- 
tioned. One in particular is specified, where the 
sufferer was so completely deprived of the use of 
his limbs as to be carried by four men. He is 
cured instantly that Jesus speaks, and icalks off, 
carrying his bed. 

A cripple, who had been suffering from his 
infirmity and loss of limbs for thirty-eight years, — 
and a poor woman, who had been bent double for 
eighteen years, are both cured at once. The latter 
" was immediately made straight." The former 
was " immediately made whole, and took up his 
bed and walked." 

What can be a more hopeless state, than a dry 
withered limb ? Nature seems dead in the part. 
All power is gone. A man with a withered hand 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 217 

comes to Christ : he is ordered to stretch it out, 
and " it is restored whole, as the other" 

Mesmerism has been of signal service in deaf- 
ness, in blindness, and where the voice has been 
injured ; but the benefit has been obtained by 
degrees ; and in no instance has a cure been pro- 
duced where the privation has arisen from a 
structural defect, commencing with the birth. 
Several cases are mentioned in Scripture of cures 
of blindness, — of blindness "from birth," — of 
deafness and dumbness united from birth, — of 
deafness with impediment in the speech, — and so 
on, where the cure was instantaneous, and follow- 
ing the touch. In one case of blindness, the cure 
was effected more gradually ; still it was cured, — 
and half an hour, or an hour at the most, was 
the time occupied from the sufferer's first inter- 
view with Jesus, before his eyes were " restored 
and that he saw every man clearly." To compare 
any of the benefits procured by Mesmerism, with 
those marvellous cures of blindness and deafness, 
would be an absurdity, which none but those who 
nave not studied them closely, would dream of 
committing. 

Among other instantaneous cures, we may 
mention that of a woman with an issue of blood 
of twelve years' duration, who came behind, and 
without the (humanly speaking) knowledge of 
Jesus, touched his garment, and was cured di- 

rtty; that of a boy with violent epileptic fits; 



218 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

and that of the servant whose ear was cut off, the 
wound of which was at once healed by the touch 
of Jesus. 

It may be as well to add, that in the xvth of 
Matthew, verse 30., where the Evangelist speaks 
of the " lame and maimed " being brought to 
Jesus, and of the u lame walking," and the 
" maimed being made whole," some of the best 
commentators are of opinion, that the word which 
in our translation is rendered " maimed," signifies 
those who had not merely lost the use of their 
limbs, as the lame, — but even the limbs themselves ; 
and that those deficient limbs were replaced, and 
the sufferers " made whole." Be this as it may, 
here is a succession of cures, standing out in pre- 
eminent majesty, both in the nature of the dis- 
ease and the suddenness of the relief, — far — far 
above any that the annals of Magnetism can 
adduce, with a line of demarcation between them 
so broad and insuperable, that the most trembling 
Christian need not dread the faintest approxi- 
mation. 

A fourth distinguishing mark, attendant upon 
the cures related in the Gospel, is the permanency 
of their effect. There is no reason to suspect from 
the slightest phrase that drops from any of the 
New Testament writers, nor from any charge that 
was advanced by the unbeliever, that the benefit 
was not as lasting as it was complete. No one 
can assert the same of all our Mesmeric cures 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 219 

Many are indeed permanent ; but with a large 
number the action requires to be renewed at in- 
tervals, especially in some diseases that are of a 
chronic kind. 

Still the unbeliever replies, that Christ per- 
formed all his cures by the " touch" u They 
brought unto him those that were sick with divers 
diseases, and he laid his hands on every one of them 
and healed them." It was the Mesmeric "touch" 
they assert. Though there was no manipulating 
process adopted, still the Mesmeric power was 
possessed by him to such an unusual and excessive 
degree, that the mere touch was sufficient. That 
a virtue accompanied the touch of the Saviour is 
idmitted. It is, in fact, the very thing we assert. 
The question is whether that touch was divine or 
mman, — whether the touch of any other human 
3eing, not recorded in Scripture, ever wrought out 
:he same effects ? Supposing, even as some think, 
hat the touch was Mesmeric, only exerted to a 
mpernatural degree, the result would not be less 

a miracle. If God brings out a latent power 
n nature, and exercises it to an extent of which 
nan is incapable, though the virtue itself be part 
>f nature's forces, still its employment to this ex- 
reme degree would be an interference with our 
>hysical laws, and therefore strictly preternatural. 
This is the distinction between an energy that is 
>rdinary, or extra-ordinary. The former may be 
ery wonderful, — but the latter is miraculous. 



220 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

And certainly, in confirmation of this view, it 
must be said that God works by means. To judge 
from analogy, He does not create a fresh power, 
where sufficient in nature already exists. When 
the Red Sea was divided by miracle, though dry 
land could have been produced at once by the 
simple word of his power, He rather caused the 
waters to go back by the effect of a strong east 
wind, which He called into unusual action for the 
occasion. And thus it may be with Mesmerism 
Christ may have exercised a latent Mesmeric power 
to an extra and miraculous extent. For instance 
when the poor woman with an issue of blood 
touched him secretly, and Jesus said that he 
" perceived that virtue was gone out of him," H 
may have meant that a supernatural portion oi 
that magnetic virtue, which is imparted in a greatei 
or less degree to every human being, had escapee 
from Him and caused the benefit. I mention thi 
in deference to the views of others, rather than a 
expressing my own opinion. In changing watei 
into wine, or in multiplying five loaves to feed fiv 
thousand, there would appear a species of divine 
power exerted, having no connection whatevei 
with this quality of "touch." His touch, there 
fore, may not have been meant for a medium o 
communication. It may simply have been ai 
external action, identifying himself with the cure 
and attracting the attention of the party more e 
pecially towards him. Moreover, Jesus did no 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 221 

always touch the sick. In the cure of the sick of 
the palsy, of the cripple, of the withered hand, of 
the boy with epileptic fits, no mention is made of 
the " laying on of hands." And this brings us to a 
fifth and very remarkable distinction, the cure of 
three sick persons immediately and at a distance, 
w r hither this assumed Mesmeric virtue could not 
possibly, except by miracle, extend. Nothing in 
the annals of Mesmerism has a parallel to this. I 
certainly know of some instances, where a strong 
sanative and soothing power has been commu- 
nicated at a distance by the transmission of a 
highly Mesmerised material, and from which the 
benefit has also been at present permanent. But 
this curative effect was the work of weeks, of 
months, — of long incessant application. Let us, 
on the other hand, turn to the three cases recorded 
in Scripture. The first was the cure of a noble- 
man's son, who was dying of a fever, at the distance 
of more than twenty miles. The disease left him 
at the very hour in which Jesus said " Thy son 
liveth." The second is the cure of the Centurion's 
servant, who was sick of a palsy and " ready to 
die," who " was healed in the self-same hour that 
Jesus spoke," — without his passing under the 
roof. The third w r as the recovery of the daughter 
of the woman of Canaan, at once and at a distance 
by the mere word and command of Jesus. What- 
ever the sickness was, whether derangement or 
epileptic fits, it matters not ; the fact was, she 



222 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

was cured; and cured without touch or even ap- 
proximation of the Saviour. 

Here then are five characteristics, which espe- 
cially distinguish the curative miracles of Christ, 
and separate them from any resemblance to even 
the highest order of Mesmeric power. 

1. The cure was universal. 

2. The diseases were more desperate, and in 

some cases organic. 

3. The cure was instantaneous. 

4. The cure was permanent. 

5. The cure was occasionally performed at a 

distance. 

One other quality may be mentioned : the 
power was transmissive. The Apostles were in- 
vested with the same virtue to an equal degree. 
This can in no wise be said of those who possessed 
that peculiar healing power that we before alluded 
to. This cannot be said of Gassner, of Greatrakes, 
of De Loutherbourgh, or of others. The power 
died with them. It was not imparted to followers 
or friends. Not so in the Christian dispensation: 
the Disciples were empowered equally "to lay 
hands on the sick," and the promise was, " and 
they shall recover." We read of " many wonders 
and signs being done by the Apostles." We read 
of a "multitude out of the cities round about 
Jerusalem bringing sick folks to the Apostles, and 
they were healed every one ! " More especially we 
are told of the cure by Peter and John of the im- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 223 

potent man in the temple, that was lame from his 
birth, whose ankle-bones and feet received strength 
immediately : of the cripple at Lystra, " who had 
never walked " from his birth, and also stood up at 
once and leaped, at the mere word of St. Paul ; 
and of the father of Publius, who lay sick of a 
fever and was healed by the same Apostle. Other 
wonders might be named ; but this is sufficient to 
enable us to ask this question, If Christ only 
wrought his cures by the exercise of the same 
natural power, that Gassner and others employed, 
why was he able to transmit the same virtue to 
his followers, while with Gassner and Greatrakes 
no successor appeared? 

" But," says the anxious inquirer, " you have at 
present made no allusion to the most wondrous 
parts of Mesmerism. Clairvoyance, internal vision, 
the predictive faculty, are all passed over ; and 
these are the phenomena that more than any par- 
take of the miraculous character." 

Of the predictive faculty there is some diffi- 
culty in speaking. Many remarkable facts have 
certainly been stated, on the most respectable 
authority : and he would be a bold and hasty man, 
who should presume to reject them, without hav- 
ing fully certified himself as to the defect in their 
evidence. But strange as some of these predic- 
tions appear, to place them in the same category 
vith the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, 
I — to compare them with the fulfilment of facts 



224 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

which had been predicted hundreds of years be- 
fore, is preposterous. They somewhat approach 
the character of the stories of second-sight among 
the Scotch. It would be difficult to discredit all 
the anecdotes that are related under that head ; 
and many other singular predictions have oc- 
curred in the history of the human mind, to which 
different medical and metaphysical works have 
referred. How far, in certain states of diseases, 
the mind becomes more spiritual and acquires a 
peculiar character of exaltation and of subtle judg- 
ment, so as to decide more clearly as to the pro- 
bability of an event, I leave to physiologists to 
determine. Such, at any rate, is my own opinion. 
Still all this, even at the best, is widely different 
from the prophetic character. The anticipation of 
an event, a few weeks previously, is very remote 
from a prediction of several centuries ; and in fact, 
this sort of foresight bears no more relation to 
ancient prophecy, than do the wonderful cures of 
the Mesmeriser to the miraculous effects recorded 
in the Gospel. 

Of clairvoyance, or the faculty ot seeing through 
opaque bodies, of reading without the use of the 
eyes, and so forth, wonderful as these facts appear 
at first, and utterly discredited as they are by 
many who believe in the other marvels of Mes 
merism, it is not needful to say so much as might 
be expected, for two reasons. 

First, they bear no resemblance whatsoever to 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 225 

any thing recorded in Scripture. Nothing of the 
dnd is mentioned in the Gospel history as one of 
its miracles. Christ never appealed to any such 
iact, as a proof of his divine legation. 

But, secondly, however wonderful or incredible 
they may appear, — there is not one single fact of 
this nature, occurring in the Mesmeric state, — but 
the same or a similar fact has been found to exist, 
spontaneously, in the condition of natural som- 
nambulism. Those who will study the subject, 
will see this assertion unequivocally proved. I 
have given this statement before. In certain 
stages of extreme or peculiar disease, nature has 
found a vent, by throwing the patient into an 
abnormal condition. In this condition very sin- 
gular phenomena have appeared. Very many 
cases * could be cited of clairvoyance in that par- 
icular state. — In these cases, Mesmerism was 
mknown to the parties, or was not applied 
artificially. These phenomena were the result of 
ivsteria or natural Mesmerism. At any rate, they 
ippeared spontaneously and in a state of disease ; 
md as such they relieve the Mesmeric wonders of 
he character of the supernatural, and bring them 
lown to the level of ordinary occurrences; and any 
comparison, therefore, between the latter and the 
niracles of Scripture, would be misplaced and 
uperfluous. 

* See Appendix. 

Q 



226 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

I trust that the anxious and the scrupulous 
may now feel more assured on this important 
subject ; and perceive the wide distinction that 
exists in the matter. The question is capable of 
a much more detailed analysis, and of receiving a 
fuller and more conclusive proof. But enough, — 
and perhaps more than enough has been stated ; — 
much too that is wearisome, much that is old, — 
much that is self-evident. But I seek not to 
please a sect, or give knowledge to the well- 
instructed. This little work is for the use of the 
ignorant or the timid ; and while I am anxious bv 
its publication to " do good unto all men ; " l| 
more especially write for the "household of faith/' 
Many amiable and virtuous minds have bee: 
deterred from giving Mesmerism that candidl 
trial which its importance deserves, from n( 
other feeling than a silent unuttered fear as t( 
its bearing on Revelation. To say that such 
feeling is not right, — that a love of truth ought 
to be predominant at all hazards, is easy oi 
utterance, and perhaps correct in reality. Still 
it is a feeling that deserves respect. And it is t( 
meet this feeling, and remove these scruples, thaj 
the materials of this Chapter have been put toj 
gether. How far they may be successful tim^ 
will show. That there was a necessity for tin 
attempt, there cannot be a question. And nr 
hope is, that many a perplexed and doubtini 
heart, whose faith had been staggered for a littlj 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 227 

season at the presumed mysteriousness of our new 
science, may be led to a more accurate under- 
standing of its relative merits; — and comparing 
natural things with things that are really super- 
human, may see more clearly the transcendent 
superiority of all that has been related of Christ, 
beyond any antagonistic claims affecting equal 
power ; ■ — and, with a belief more and more 
strengthened by a diligent and prayerful inves- 
tigation of the truth, may be enabled in all 
sincerity with Nathaniel to exclaim, " Rabbi, 
Thou art the Son of God ! Thou art the King of 
Israel!" 



Q 2 



228 



CHAP. VII. 

MARVELS AND LYING WONDERS. EXPLANATION OF FANCIED 

MIRACLES. ECSTATIC DREAMERS AND PROPHETESSES. 

MODERN MIRACLES AMONG WESLEY ANS AND ROMAN CA- 
THOLICS TESTED BY WHAT OCCURRED IN A FRIEND'S HOUSE. 
LORD SHREWSBURY AND THE TYROLESE. " TRANS- 
FER OF THOUGHT." MESMERIC ACTION CONTAGIOUS. 

CONCLUSION. 

But though Mesmerism does not shake, in the 
most distant degree, the belief of the intelligent 
Christian in the reality of Scripture miracles, — it 
furnishes the Philosopher with a useful clue to- 
wards the understanding of much that has hitherto 
been mysterious. In the history of man, many 
facts have been recorded, of which a clear expla- 
nation has yet been wanting. In all ages of the 
world, we have had a succession of marvels, at 
which the ignorant have been alarmed, the wise 
have been staggered, and the superstitious excited, 
False prophets, pretended miracles, wonder-work- 
ing saints, have, from time to time, arisen, dis- 
turbing and deceiving the very elect. Though 
heathenism and idolatry have had their prodigies 
in abundance, to the authority of which their 
votaries have appealed in confirmation of their 
creed, the Church of Christ has been more espe- 
cially rife with pretensions of the same order, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 229 

The charge of trick and delusion on these occa- 
sions has been advanced in every generation; — 
sometimes correctly,- — not unfrequently, however, 
with inconsiderate haste. The unbeliever has de- 
tected much that was false ; — the scientific have 
traced much to the effect of imagination ; and so 
the inconsequential conclusion has been adopted 
through convenience, that imposture was at the 
foundation of all the rest. And yet to those who 
had impartially examined the various recorded 
statements, this summary decision w^as not always 
satisfactory. A miracle, or miraculous train of 
incidents, is, for example, announced. After a 
time an inquiry is pursued. The sceptic and the 
unprejudiced take the question up. A mass of 
falsehood and folly is discovered ; and yet, after a 
large deduction on that head, there often " re- 
mained a residuum of something strange and per- 
plexing 5 ' to the most philosophic. Of course, all 
this was, in the end, placed to the account of 
" imagination," and so the question was disposed 
of for a season; — but the real analysis of the dif- 
ficulty was incomplete and partial. 

Most divisions of the Church have, in their 
turn, appealed to their own especial marvel. A 
miracle has not been wanting to prove the most 
opposite doctrines. Wherever there has been the- 
coarsest ignorance, there has generally been the 
greatest prodigy : and the number of these " lying 
wonders" has been in proportion, not so much to 
Q 3 



230 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

the quality of the faith, as to the enthusiasm of 
the party, and the multitude and character of the 
respective followers. As Bacon says, in his Ad- 
vancement of Learning, "This facility of credit, 
and accepting or admitting things weakly author- 
ized or warranted, hath too easily registered re- 
ports and narrations of miracles wrought by mar- 
tyrs, hermits, and other holy men, which, though 
they had a passage for a time by the ignorance of 
the people, the superstitious simplicity of some, 
and the politic toleration of others, — yet, after a 
period, when the mist began to clear up, they 
grew to be esteemed but as old wives' fables, im- 
postures of the clergy, and illusions of spirits, to 
the great scandal and detriment of religion." 

One point, however, is deserving of notice. 
Whatever accumulation of falsehood has been 
super-added in the progress, the original fact, 
from which the pretended miracle has taken its 
rise, has in general been a genuine and undoubted 
occurrence, for which a natural or secondary cause 
may be discovered. Most corrupt as is human 
nature, this statement may be adopted with but 
occasional exceptions. Nor is it difficult to follow 
out a transaction of the kind, till it altogether 
assumes the colour of complete imposture. A sin- 
gular fact occurs in a secluded spot, and amongst 
an ignorant population. It is soon spoken of as 
supernatural. The first to visit and inquire into 
the details is the spiritual pastor of the flock. He 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 231 

hears much that is incomprehensible to him. But 
little removed in intelligence above his own su- 
perstitious congregation, he adopts their theory, 
and sees with their eyes. The fact becomes a 
miracle with him. God has visited his people ; 
and as the especial minister of God he takes the 
management of the case under his peculiar care. 
Xothing has thus far occurred but what is fair 
and natural. Soon, however, a temptation assails 
him ; for the admiration of the populace begins 
to flag ; the wonder is ceasing to be wonderful. 
The good man fears that the salutary check upon 
sin and immorality, which the suddenness of the 
marvel had effected in his neighbourhood, is losing 
its charm. A little excitement is necessary: a 
small additional wonder, therefore, is ingeniously 
brought out. The success is complete : the cre- 
dit of the miracle resumes its hold; the power 
of religion takes deeper root : and thus the sup- 
posed goodness of the object, and the real benefits 
of the deception, warp his judgment and lead him 
on. The same round, however, must again be 
shortly run. And thus, step by step, the pious 
fraud grows beneath his hand ; unintentional de- 
ceptions are added in virtue's spite ; the man him- 
self has become what "he cannot change, than 
what he chooses;" — and at last the original won- 
der has swelled into a monstrous amount of wick- 
edness and imposture ; and religion and the cause 
of truth are periled by the detection. 
Q 4 



232 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Now, for many of these marvellous occurrences, 
Mesmerism can afford a natural explanation* 
From my own experience, I can state that very 
many facts, which have been accepted as miracu- 
lous, and secured the wonder of a superstitious 
multitude, have been but the transcript of the 
same class of incidents as have occurred within 
the walls of my own house. Natural Somnam- 
bulism, and Mesmerism artificially induced (for 
they are both but different phases of the same 
condition), will explain many points of the "super- 
natural" which were previously inexplicable to the 
inquirer. Nor is it necessary, on all occasions, to 
assume that any additional prodigies have been 
appended to the first wonder. Oftentimes the 
whole transaction has seemed, on Mesmeric prin- 
ciples, nothing but a probable and natural chain 
of facts : good faith and honesty of purpose have 
prevailed throughout; — the original marvel re- 
mained as it began ; and a charge of imposition 
would be wanton and unphilosophical. 

More often, however, the temptation to deceive 
has been too successful with sinful man. His 
unconquerable love of spiritual power has acted 
fatally on the evil propensity within. And where 
this power could be maintained by the encourage- 
ment, or connivance, — or practice of deceit, the 
Old Adam has too generally surrendered to the 
seduction. This is the fact, with all creeds and 
all religionists. It is monstrous to make this an 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 233 

exclusive charge against one particular Church. 
That a greater variety of pious frauds has been 
detected among the priesthood of the Romish 
church is referable to the fact, that their sway- 
has been most predominant during the darkest 
ages of Christianity. As Archbishop Whateley 
says in one of the most useful of his works., 
"The Origin of Romish Errors," — " This ten- 
dency to fraudulent means is not peculiar to any 
sect, age, or country — it is the spontaneous growth 
of the corrupt soil of man's heart." 

In illustration of the above, a fact can be stated 
on the best authority. I received it from a lady, 
whose name I am not at liberty to mention, — ■ 
but whose position in society and in the literary 
world is a guarantee for the correctness of the 
story. She received it from a sister of the patient, 
md was herself well acquainted with the names 
md residence of the parties. An invalid had for 
seven years lost the use of his legs, it is believed, 
3y rheumatism. A Wesleyan minister in the 
neighbourhood, who had discovered in himself the 
power of relieving pain by the Mesmeric process, 
ong however before Mesmerism had become ge- 
nerally known, called upon the sufferer, — offered 
to do all he could *to heal him, and said that " he 
loped to be as useful to him as the Prophet 
Elisha." The man, of course, was but too willing 
:o place hime are very beautix And after a suc- 
cession of » witness; — still they all warmth came 



234 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

on, followed by a complete restoration of the 
limbs. In short, the sufferer was wonderfully 
cured. The immediate cause, we now know, was 
Mesmerism ; for such results are not uncommon ; 
but the thing was inscrutable to all around, and 
was deemed miraculous by the patient and many 
of his friends. The Wesleyan minister was re- 
garded by the ignorant populace as a prophet, or, 
as Bacon expresses it, a " holy man," in conse- 
quence ; and as his spiritual influence was mightily 
increased by the transaction, our good preacher 
winked at the delusion, — but in reality was more 
of a deceiver than many a calumniated monk in 
the church of Rome. 

But it is on that class of strange appearances, 
which has received the name of the Devotional 
Ecstasis, that Mesmerism throws an especial lightJ 
In all ages, heathen and Christian, a peculiar 
species of physiological effect has been observed] 
from time to time, to present itself in young ancl 
sickly females, — which has assumed the characte: 
of the miraculous or the divine. Sibyls, pro 
phetesses, inspired priestesses, ecstatic dreamers 
magical maids, devout nuns, entranced females 
have all followed in succession, and received thei 
particular appellation from the accident of th 
country or religion that claimed them, and 
which they became boast. Al 

these female f 5 f act > with all gj. been re 

garded as r 1 * ** ft monstrous to make fhile thei 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 235 

symptoms, language, attitude, and dreams have 
all partaken of one uniform character, the doc- 
xines they have upheld, have been as opposite as 
:he poles. Disease teas the secret of the whole 
natter. I do not believe, that one single instance 
:>f this class of ancient or modern miracles can be 
adduced, in which the party had not been origin- 
Hy, and often for a long time, in a most un- 
lealthy condition. Let this fact be followed out, 
and it will be found correct. In this diseased 
state, nature often relieves itself by throwing the 
patient into an hysteric and sleeping state. This 
somnambulistic condition is nothing else than 
Mesmerism spontaneously produced, — as the 
symptoms and phenomena clearly indicate. They 
are but one and the same ; with this difference, 
that in artificial Mesmerism, a sympathy with 
the Mesmeriser is superadded, and a curative 
action obtained. I do not mean, that these 
peculiar phenomena occur in every case of Mes- 
merism ; on the contrary, they are very rare : 
but when they do take place, they are so pre- 
cisely similar in their character and affection to 
what occurs in common somnambulism, that no 
material difference exists between them. Of 
course, as in the natural ecstasis, they are not all 
equally marked : some are stronger in one point 
than in another ; some are of a very short dura- 
tion ; — some are very beautiful — some are very 
painful to witness; — still they all belong to one 



236 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

family ; and whether resulting from a natural or 
artificial action, may universally be traced to the 
working of disease. The very same phenomena, 
which I have myself witnessed in the case of 
Anne Vials, and which have occurred with her over 
and over again, have been brought forward as 
proofs of the miraculous nature of several appear- 
ances in different entranced females. Dr. Elliot 
son, in the fourth number of the " Zoist," men- 
tions a similar case in one of his patients, where 
a beautiful ecstatic fit of holy rapture was brought 
on in the Mesmeric trance, and which amongst 
an ignorant people might have been used for any 
superstitious purpose. I shall refer presently to 
a third and different case, where, in the magnetic 
sleep, the patient is invested with an apparently 
prophetic character, — and a species of divine 
knowledge seems to be conferred upon her. In 
all these cases, natural or artificially induced, 
there is almost always, during the period of the 
paroxysm, a very great exaltation of the intellec- 
tual faculties, an unusual clearness of mind, — a 
high tone of moral feeling, — a spirituality not 
only in appearance but in language, and occasion- 
ally that peculiar power of foreseeing the probablt 
result of certain circumstances then in action, 
which when the effect corresponds with the ex- 
pectation, assumes the semblance of the prophetic. 
In fact, as has been truly observed, the crisis is 
so strange, and the characteristic phenomena sc 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 237 

remarkable, that "the same individual, when 
awake and when somnambulist, appears like two 
entirely different persons." It is not, therefore, 
at all to be wondered at, that a young and igno- 
rant girl, when thrown by disease into this de- 
votional ecstasis, — at one moment looking up 
with heavenly smiles and clasping her hands toge- 
ther as if praying, — at another uttering the most 
strange and mysterious opinions, with a degree of 
knowledge, and freedom, and decision, of which 
she is perfectly incapable when awake, should be 
regarded by the uneducated, as a supernatural 
being. And when certain phenomena, such as an 
absence of pain, lengthened sleep, vision of per- 
ils or things with the eyes closed, should be 
iperadded to these other appearances, it is per- 
haps to be expected that some such an opinion 
should possess the minds even of the better in- 
formed. Deceived themselves by the incompre- 
hensible character of the sleeper's condition, they 
end in deceiving; others. And thus a diseased 

o 

habit of body, which a larger acquaintance with 
physiology can now readily explain, became ac- 
credited as a miracle, or denounced as Satanic, 
according to the accidental creed of the parties 
interested in the interpretation.* 

* The sceptic takes a different line. Hume, in his famous 
essay, rejects all such statements as "impossible." Speaking of 
the cures performed at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, he says : 
* ; What have we to oppose to such a cloud of witnesses but the 
absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of the events which 



238 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Without going back, therefore, to the olde 
days of Greece or Rome, we may procure many 
an example out of the annals of the Church 
Take Hume's " History of the Holy Maid of Kent/ 
in the reign of Henry the Eighth. " Elizabeth 
Barton had been subject to hysterical fits, whicl 
threw her body into unusual convulsions; anc 
having procured an equal disorder in her mind, 
made her utter strange sayings, which, as she wa 
scarcely conscious of them during the time, had soon 
after entirely escaped her memory. The silly peopl 
in the neighbourhood were struck with these ap- 
pearances, which they imagined to be supernatural^ 
The vicar of the parish began to " watch her in 
her trances, and note down her sayings." Knavery 
soon followed the first delusion. The maid was 
taught to assume a more extraordinary language, 
and to counterfeit stranger trances under the dic- 
tation of her spiritual director. " Miracles were 
daily added to increase the wonder ; and the pulpit 
everywhere resounded with accounts of the sanc- 
tity and inspiration of the new prophetess." She 
was afterwards apprehended, the forgery of her 
miracles was detected, and the public was un- 
deceived. 

Now it is clear from the attendant circum- 
stances that this was a case of natural Mesmerism, 



they relate? and this, surely, in the eyes of all reasonable 
people will alone be regarded as a sufficient refutation." The 
modern physiologist knows, however, the possibility of far more 
wondrous facts. 



MESMERISM AXD ITS OPPONENTS. 239 

The poor girl had been subject to hysterical fits, 
the effect of disease. In these fits she fell into a 
deep trance or sleep : in this sleep the usual exalt- 
ation of mind came on; — she " uttered strange 
sayings/' of which strange sayings, when she 
awoke, she was quite unconscious. This com- 
mon occurrence in the Mesmeric state the world 
deemed "supernatural;" and a designing priest- 
hood "persuaded the people and the maid her- 
self that her ravings were inspirations of the Holy 
Ghost." 

A learned writer in the " Church of England 
Quarterly Review/' for April, 1843, in an article 
on this subject^ has collected the names of several 
ecstatic nuns and females of the church of Rome. 
The reviewer mentions some cases in which the 
imposture was clear, and admitted afterwards by 
the parties : and hence he infers that all the other 
instances were " sheer imposture/' in like manner. 
Imposition, however, will not explain all the 
facts. It explains much that was added on in the 
progress of the work, after the priests had found 
the trances profitable ; but that the original state 
of many a " prophetess," which led to the delusion, 
was a natural and diseased action none can doubt, 
who have given to the subject of Mesmerism a 
philosophical study. 

Our next instance shall be drawn from the 
pages of Protestant History. When Louis the 
Fourteenth revoked the Edict of Nantes, and 
withdrew the protection of the state from the re- 



240 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

formed Church, the most extraordinary excitement 
was stirred up in the south of France, in the 
mountainous district called the Cevennes. The 
whole population went mad with religious zeal. 
They preached, — they prophesied, — they quaked; 
— in short, the most marvellous state of things came 
on, — so that to the eye of the ardent Protestant 
a divine revelation and assistance appeared vouch- 
safed to the cause. 

In the midst of the general excitement, one 
especial case of miraculous illumination was singled 
out. Isabeau Vincent, a young girl, aged seventeen, 
was constantly falling into a state of deep sleep, 
from which it was at times impossible to arouse 
her. They called to her with a loud voice, — they 
pushed her, — they pinched her, — they pricked her 
till they drew blood, — they burned her, — but no- 
thing awoke her. She was soon regarded by her 
Protestant neighbours as a prophetess. For in 
her sleep she sang Psalms, and chanted long 
hymns, and made admirable prayers, and recited 
texts of Scripture, — which she expounded, and 
from which she formed her prophetic declarations. 
When she awoke, she remembered nothing of what 
she had said or prophesied during the ecstasis. 
And one other remarkable point in her condition 
was, — that she rarely awoke of herself, — but 
required assistance, and told those about her to 
awaken her.* 

* " Ces extases ne paraissaient que comme un profond sommeil, 
duquel il etait impossible de la tirer. On l'appelait a haute voix, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 241 

We have another remarkable prophetess in the 
reformed church. Christian Poniatova, of Bohe- 
mia. Her convulsions, trances, and visions took 
place in 1627, at the time that a sharp persecution 
was set on foot against the Protestant part of the 
Bohemian community. Her visions had reference 
to the prosperity and fortunes of the reformed 
church. Her sleep was most profound; during 
which she fell into an ecstasis. She then predicted 
several events : and she seems to have had in that 
state a certain species of prevision, such as Mes- 
merised patients occasionally possess. Her Pro- 
testant partizans regarded the whole as a miracle, 
and the girl as divinely inspired. But here is the 
noticeable point : when she recovered her health, 
the supernatural disappeared. The malady and 
the miracle went away together. She afterwards 
married, and was no longer regarded as a pro- 
phetess.* 

Mr. Colquhoun, in the " Isis Revelata," gives 
us another case that occurred in Brazil, where a 
girh named Sister Germaine, in 1808, was attacked 
by an hysterical affection, accompanied by serious 
ill health : — " She was in such a state, that she 
was no longer able to rise from her bed, and sub- 
sisted upon a regimen which could scarcely have 



on la poussait, on la pi^ait, on la piquait jusqu'au sang, on la 
brulait, rien ne la reveillait." — Bertrand. T. du Somnambulisme, 
p. 368. 

* Bertrand, Traite du Somnambulisme. 

B 



242 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

supported the life of a new-born infant." And 
now comes the miraculous part. The poor in- 
valid fell into a deep trance : her arms grew stiff, 
and were extended in the form of a cross, and in 
this position remained for hours. Other circum- 
stances, usual in this sort of ecstasis, took place ; 
the whole was declared to be a miracle. Sister 
Germaine was regarded as a saint ; and the con- 
course of pilgrims to visit her was immense. And 
now let us notice the close connection between 
natural and mesmeric somnambulism. The priest 
stated, that " in the midst of the most fearful con- 
vulsions, it was always sufficient for him to touch 
the patient to restore her to perfect tranquillity. 
During her periodical ecstasies, when her limbs 
were so stiff that it would have been easier to 
break than bend them, her confessor, according to 
his own account, had only to touch her arm, in 
order to give it whatever position he thought 
proper." Every Mesmeriser who has had a patient 
in a rigid or cataleptic state can understand and 
believe the above narrative. 

We will now come to later days — to certain 
modern miracles among the Wesleyans and Roman 
Catholics, which have excited considerable interest 
and sensation in their respective churches. 

Among the Wesleyans there have been re- 
cently two or three wonders, — some of which are 
too ridiculous to be noticed ; but there is one 
which, from the notoriety and credit it has ob- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 243 

tained, — the manner with which public attention 
has been invited towards it, and the effect it has 
produced upon the religious feelings of their own 
body, is more especially deserving of examination. 

u The History of an Entranced Female " is a 
narrative drawn up and attested by the Rev. R. 
Young, Wesleyan minister. This little work was 
sold by the accredited organ of the Wesleyan 
Book Committee and of the Conference, with their 
connivance, if not their permission ; and so far 
the story received their indirect sanction. The 
circulation was immense. It reached a twenty- 
seventh edition ; and the revelations of the pro- 
phetess were considered so important that the 
faith of whole Wesleyan congregations was in a 
state of warm excitement respecting them. 

It was simply a case of hysteria, or natural 
Mesmerism, as a few words extracted from the 
narrative will show. The somnambulist "had 
been very ill, and was supposed to be dying" Here 
is the first point to be remembered. At last she 
fell into a trance. " In this state," Mr. Young 
says, "she appeared to die. But after lying, 
with no signs of life, save a little froth from the 
mouth and a slight warmth about the region of 
the heart, for nearly a week, she opened her eyes. 
And now began her remarkable disclosures" It is 
unnecessary to examine these disclosures. There 
is no reason to suppose either trick or imagination 
in the transaction. It is a case of pure ignorance 
R 2 



244 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

on the part of the writer and of his Wesleyan 
supporters. Like the Holy Maid of Kent, and 
several Mesmerised patients, the " Entranced Fe- 
male " was simply in a state of exaltation, moral 
and intellectual, and had clearer and more active 
perceptions than in her ordinary condition.* 

We will now examine the no less memorable 
occurrences in the Roman Catholic community : 
these have produced an equal excitement, and 
have equally been referred to as proofs of the 
supernatural. It has long ago been observed, 
that in enthusiastic belief of the marvellous, the 
Wesley ans and Romanists are sister churches, f 

We must first return to Mr. M'Neile, and give 
his views on the question ; for strange to say, he 
has in some manner alighted on a certain portion 
of the truth, and seen the real connection be- 
tween the artificial and the natural ecstasy. " This 
pretended science," says the sermon, " is precisely 
the thing that my Lord Shrewsbury has put 
forth, to prove that popery is the true version of 
Christianity. What is his Ecstatica which he 
has written such a book about ? You have heard 
of the Ecstatica and Addolorata, — the two young 
women whom he saw on the Continent : they were 



* See a clever useful little book in refutation of several of 
these absurdities, called " Modern Miracles condemned by Reason 
and Scripture," by Philo- Veritas, (Painter, 342. Strand.) Stil 
the writer has not gone to the bottom of the subject, or under 
stood the real cause of the phenomena. 

■f See Bishop Lavington's well-known and most useful work. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOXENTS. 245 

Mesmerised. His description of them exactly 
corresponds with the description we have of these 
Mesmerised persons. He tells us of a young 
woman, who was in a state of ecstasy, wrapt in 
prayer, devoted to the Virgin ; — her eyes were 
open, hut she had no natural sensibility of what 
was going on without. He says that " a fly icas 
seen to walk across her eyeball, and she never 
winked ; she was totally insensible of every thing 
that was going on, except one thing : he says, 
that she manifested consciousness at the approach 
of the consecrated host." " Now here is a state, 
pleaded by a popish writer as a proof of divine 
influence, as a proof of divine origin of his creed." 
" Xow this belongs to the mystery of iniquity.'' 
— And so far the sermon. Now what Mr. M'Neile 
considered as Satanic, and my Lord Shrewsbury 
as divine in the above transactions, I must beg 
leave to reduce to a humbler character; and 
stripping the facts altogether of the marvellous, 
show to be merely an action of nature in a state 
of disease. 

In that most delightful province of southern 
Germany, where the simple character of the in- 
habitants, and the ever-varying charms of moun- 
tain, valley, and torrent, would tempt the idle 
traveller to linger for weeks, two young girls 
have lately been the subject of much observation 
from the peculiar character and condition of their 
health. Those who have traversed that pic- 
E 3 



246 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

turesque route in the Tyrol, which leads from 
Brixen to Trent, want not to be reminded, how 
every nook and turn of the road swarms w T ith the 
emblems of Roman Catholic worship. Super- 
stition puts on its most persuasive form. Images 
of the Virgin, of the Saviour, — of the cruci- 
fixion w r ith all its attendant accidents, stations 
for devotion, and hermitages, meet the eye of the 
passenger in uninterrupted succession. In no 
part of the Continent have I ever remarked so 
many of the externals of devotion as in the 
smiling vales of the Tyrol ; and the primitive 
habits of its mountain peasantry have been strongly 
moulded under their influence. As Southey says 
in his Colloquies, " Religion may be neglected, but 
cannot be forgotten in Roman Catholic coun- 
tries ; " and the reader is requested to bear this 
observation in mind, as throwing light on certain 
phenomena, of which strong religious feelings 
were the source. 

These two young girls, the Ecstatica of Caldaro, 
and the Addolorata of Capriana (as they are now 
termed) had both been subject to much ill health. 
The former " had had various attacks of illness 
during her early years." The Addolorata " had 
been attacked with violent and complicated illness 
about the age of seventeen." Both at last fell 
into a trance. Both became " Ecstatic." And 
in that state such singular phenomena exhibited 
themselves, the effeot of an excited mind upon a 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 247 

diseased habit of body, that the appearances were 
pronounced by the surrounding country to be 
miraculous. The priesthood at once took the 
cases under their protection ; but there is no 
reason to believe that any imposture or trickery 
was superadded by them. They were as honest 
as they were ignorant. All they did was to 
magnify the importance of the facts, and to give 
the largest currency to the intelligence. Mul- 
titudes flocked from all quarters as on a pil- 
grimage. Amongst them came my Lord Shrews- 
bury and suite ; and several Protestant gentle- 
men, who were all staggered by what they saw. 

Lord Shrewsbury, believing the facts to be 
supernatural, published that account to which 
Mr. M'Xeile referred ; and from his little pam- 
phlet, we will select the more prominent points. 
" We found her," says the Noble Lord, speaking 
of the Ecstatica, " in her usual state of ecstasy, 
— kneeling upon her bed, with her eyes up- 
lifted, and her hands joined in the attitude of 

prayer as motionless as a statue There was 

much of grace in her attitude." " Our first feel- 
ing was that of awe at finding ourselves in her 
presence." She appeared " motionless." " When 
in this state, she neither sees nor hears: all her 
senses are absorbed in the object of her con- 
templation; she is entranced; but it is neither 
the trance of death, nor the suspension of life, 
but a sort of supernatural existence, — dead in- 
R 4 



248 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

deed to this world, — but most feelingly alive to 
the other." " She had not the least perception of 
our presence" " Her confessor by a slight touch 
or word caused her to fall back upon her pillow." 
" Her confessor proposed that he should awaken 
her entirely from her trance." " In an instant the 
most perfect animation was restored to her." " The 
circumstance which struck us, was the extreme 
facility with which her confessor transformed her 
from a state of perfect unconsciousness as to 
sensible objects to one of ordinary life." — " She 
has been known to remain for hours in this state/' 
— " yet a gentle touch from her confessor, or any 
ecclesiastic with whom she is acquainted, is suf- 
ficient to dissolve the charm at once." 

" A M. de la Bouillerie visited her on his way 
to Rome, and found her kneeling in a state of 
ecstasy, when he saw a fly walk quietly across 
the pupil of her eye, when wide open, without 
producing the slightest emotion." 

The Addolorata was much the same. " She 
frequently lay entranced for a considerable time." 
66 It was under these circumstances that during one 
night her whole head was encircled by small 
wounds." " Fourteen days after the crown of 
thorns, she received the stigmata in the hands and 
feet." " As a piece of deception," — says Lord 
Shrewsbury, "it is both morally and physically 
impossible." These are the main points in these 
two Roman Catholic miracles, with the addition 



MESMERISM ANT> ITS OPPONENTS. 249 

of what has already been mentioned, "the con- 
sciousness of the approach of the consecrated host." 

" Now/' says Lord Shrewsbury in conclusion, 
"the infidel may scoff at all this, but the designs of 
Grod are accomplished." There is, however, no 
inclination to scoff at the sincere opinions of any 
man, when it is said in reply, that these supposed 
miraculous appearances are the same in character, 
as what the Wesleyan and the Protestant maidens 
of the Cevennes and of Bohemia exhibited in their 
persons, due allowance being made for the differ- 
ences of religion, and the various habits of mind 
and body ; nay, they are much the same as what 
numerous spectators have witnessed in the house 
of Mr. Atkinson, and what I have seen occurring 
under my own roof. 

These ecstatic cases, whether of artificial or 
natural somnambulism, would seem to be divided 
into two classes. Those in which a devotional 
attitude or a cataleptic state are developed, but 
where little or nothing of a predictive or conver- 
sational power appeared; and those, in which 
revelations and disclosures were the distinguishing 
characteristics. 

The two girls in the Tyrol, Sister Germaine of 
Brazil, Anne Vials of St. Alban's, and Dr. Elliot- 
son's patient, of whom he speaks in the "Zo'ist," 
fall under the first class. The Holy Maid of Kent, 
the French and Bohemian Protestant dreamers, 
the entranced female among the Wesleyans, and 



250 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

a young Mesmeric prophetess, of whom I shall 
speak presently, belong to the second division, 
Of course, there are intermediate shades of dis- 
tinction and of connection; but there would 
appear to be some sort of mental or physical 
difference. 

I have not a shadow of doubt, that if Mr. At- 
kinson had wished to found a religious sect, and 
secluding Anne Vials from the world, had ha- 
bituated her for years to conversation, and objects, 
and persons, and books of an exclusively religious 
character, and never permitted mundane trans 
actions to be brought to her notice, either in hei 
waking or sleeping state, that the most extraor 
dinary effects might have been produced, and the 
most monstrous doctrines have been built up a1 
his suggestion. He might have retreated with 
his ecstatic dreamer to some romantic vale, — 
startled the superstitious neighbourhood by he 
attitudes, her devotions, and her miraculous suf- 
ferings ; and crowds would have flocked to witness 
the spectacle, and imbibe his creed ; and gaping 
tourists might have perplexed their readers wit! 
lucubrations on the phenomena. But Mr. Atkinsor 
is a philosopher and lover of truth : his habit is tc 
illustrate, — to compare, — to explain ; — witl 
Bacon he delights in the u Interpretation of Na- 
ture," believing that " God hath fitted much fo 
the comprehension of man's mind, if man will opei 
and dilate the powers of his understanding as hi 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 251 

may." He knew., for instance, that Lord Shrews- 
bury's description of his Tyrolese maidens might 
answer word for word, to much that has occurred 
with poor Anne. The fact of a fly walking oyer 
the pupil of the eye, when wide open, which seemed 
such a proof of the miraculous to M. de la Bouillerie, 
has happened with her two or three times. The 
fly even once stopped and cleaned its wings on the 
eyeball, I once saw the end of a pocket-hand* 
kerchief placed gently on the pupil, and the lid 
neither winked nor moved at the touch. She was 
perfectly unconscious of the act. 

In regard to the appearance of the stigmata and 
the small wounds on ■ the head of the Addolorata, 
Dr. Elliotson and Mr. Atkinson both are of 
opinion, that they might be the effect of strong 
imagination and habitual contemplation upon a 
highly diseased frame : if that view be trop fort 
for some readers, I can say on the other hand, in 
pite of Lord Shrewsbury's assertion, that as " a 
piece of deception it is physically impossible," that 
I would have engaged repeatedly to have made 
the very same marks upon the head and hand of 
Anne Vials without any consciousness on her part : 
all Mesmerisers will confirm this declaration : at 
the same time, I see no reason to charge the Ty- 
rolese priests w T ith any artifice of the kind ; the 
involuntary effect of imagination after a precon- 
ceived idea is so strong with some sickly sleep- 
waking females, that through the bare impression 



252 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

of the mind; nature might throw out the external 
phenomenon. 

In the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. LXIII. 
is an example taken from Lavergne's u De l'Agonie 
et de la Mort, sous le Rapport Physiologique, &c." 
which strongly illustrates the probability of this 
opinion, and shows the effect of habitual thought 
upon the state of the body : "At this moment there 
exists in a village of the department of the Var, 
of which Brignoles is the chief town, a woman 
possessed by divine love. Since her earliest in 
fancy this woman professes the most ardent love 
for the Saviour ; the passion has always been her 
fixed idea, the object of her aspirations and 
thoughts. She meditates and prays ; and in her 
moments of ecstasy may have confided some of 
her visions to her friends. When her prayer is at 
its height" (in other words, when the ecstatic state 
is most fully developed) " a crown is seen to sur- 
round her forehead and the rest of her head, which 
looks as if it .were opened by a regular tattooing, 
from each point in which a pure blood issues : the 
palms of her hands and the soles of her feet open 
spontaneously at the places where the nails of 
the punishment were inserted, her side offers the 
bleeding mark of a lance-thrust, and finally, a true 
cross of blood appears on her chest. Cotton cloth 
applied to these places, absorb the red mark. — 
This fact can be vouched for by hundreds in the 
country." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 253 

It may be desirable to add, — that Lord Shrews- 
bury, speaking of the Ecstatica, says that Gorres, 
in his narrative of the case, relates that " so early 
as the autumn of the year 1833, her confessor ob- 
served, accidentally, that the part of the hands, 
where the wounds afterwards appeared began to 
sink in, as if under the pressure of some external 
body, and also that they became painful and fre- 
quently attacked by cramps. He conjectured from 
these appearances, that the stigmata" (i. e. the five 
wounds, like those of the Saviour, in the cruci- 
fixion) — " would eventually appear, and the result 
fulfilled his expectations. On the Purification, 
on the 2nd of February, 1834, he found her hold- 
ing a cloth, with w x hich, from time to time, she 
wiped her hands, frightened like a child at what 
she saw there. Perceiving blood upon the cloth, 
he asked her what it meant ? These w^ere the 
stigmata, which thenceforward continued upon her 
hands, and shortly afterwards made their appear- 
ance upon her feet, and to these, at the same time, 
was added the wound upon the heart." 

Xow, when the Earl of Shrewsbury, with a 
piety wxhich commands our respect, says that he 
considers these stigmata, &c, " the most extraor- 
dinary objects in the world," — it is necessary to 
remind him, that Gorres mentions that " it is 
asserted by the directors of her conscience and by 
her curate, that in her ecstasies during the last four 
years she had been employed in contemplating the 



254 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

life and passion of Christ. The most frequent 
object of her contemplations is the Passion of the 
Redeemer; — this produces the profoundest im- 
pression upon her, and is most vividly expressed 
upon her exterior. Particularly during the holy 
week, her whole being seems penetrated, and the 
images in her soul act forcibly upon her frame" 

Now, when we find that this poor girl had from 
her childhood evinced an ardent love of God and 
a pleasure in prayer, — that her visits to the Fran- 
ciscan church had been unremitting, that her 
bodily sufferings began even in her fifth year, 
that she was often on the brink of the grave, 
that no remedies ameliorated her health, that 
the root of the disorder remained undiscovered, 
and that therefore she became in consequence still 
more pious, meditative, and constant in prayer, — 
the physiologist obtains a clue to the wonder. 
" In her eighteenth year she again fell seriously 
ill, and when, after a whole year's suffering, she 
inquired of the doctor if it were quite impossible 
for her to recover her health, and he answered — 
that he could only alleviate her pains, she replied 
that she would do for the future without medical 
advice," — and would receive with submission what 
Grod would lay upon her. Here, then, we see a 
physical preparation for what the ecstasis, or 
somnambulistic condition, brought out. She 
lived for four years during her ecstatic state in 
the contemplation of the Passion of the Saviour ; — 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 255 

for more than four months before the appearance 
of the wounds, that part of the hands began to 
sink in, and became painful, — and the stigmata on 
the feet and heart did not occur till afterwards. 
In reading all this, — the result does not appear so 
very extraordinary : to use Gorres's own expres- 
sion, — " the images in her soul were acting 
forcibly upon her whole frame." 

The history of the Addolorata shows the same 
preparation of mind and body for the same effect. 
" Domenica gave early indications of extraordinary 
piety. She was frequently found praying in the 
most secluded parts of the house. She received 
her first communion with singular devotion, — and 
had expressed an ardent desire to do so at an 
earlier period." "At the age of seventeen she was 
attacked with violent and complicated illness ;" — 
"her sufferings were so great that her screams 
w^ere often heard at a great distance;" "the holy 
communion alone relieved her, — after which she 
frequently lay entranced for a considerable time." 

When the pamphlet mentions too, — that "under 
the very shadow of the large crucifix, which is 
suspended over the head of Maria Mori (the Ecsta- 
tica), the spirit of ecstasy is infused into her," and 
that " Domenica Lazari (the Addolorata) lies 
stretched upon her pallet in face of the represent- 
ation of the death of the Saviour," though Lord 
Shrewsbury describes them as "two great and 
astounding miracles," — we see an additional as- 



256 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

sistance to the action of the mind upon the body, 
— and uniting with Mesmerism to explain the 
matter. 

Lord Shrewsbury mentions in a note the case 
of another Ecstatica, in whom the wounds ap- 
peared, — who had been "very ill" and "contem- 
plating the sufferings of the Saviour, — and, moved 
by sympathy, had demanded to suffer with him." 
From all which occurrences, it would appear that 
this peculiar state is, after all, not so very extra- 
ordinary ; for fifty other persons, similarly affected, 
are supposed to have existed in the Roman Ca- 
tholic Church. 

As to the consciousness of the Ecstatica, during 
her trance, of the approach of the consecrated host, 
though Mr. M'Neile thinks it an additional prooi 
of the " mystery of iniquity," it is simply an in- 
stance of clairvoyance, which, though rejected at 
present as impossible by so many unbelievers, is 
so exceedingly common an occurrence, that shortly 
it will occasion no wonder whatsoever. 

Of the second class of Ecstatic sleepwakers 
who astonish their fellow- worshippers by the mar- 
vels they reveal, there is at this moment, in oik 
of our midland counties, a Mesmeric prophetess, 
who is equally the cause of excitement and dis- 
cussion. 

A young girl, the daughter of Socialist parents 
and brought up by them in an ignorance and unbelie 
of Scripture, had been Mesmerised on account o 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 257 

her health. She had been Mesmerised by four 
different individuals, two of whom are friends of 
my own, without any remarkable effects of a 
mental character resulting. At last, she is Mes- 
merised by a gentleman of strong religious feel- 
ings, whose knowledge of Scripture is most 
profound and accurate, and whose theological 
tenets are somewhat peculiar. Religion is, in 
fact, the uppermost occupation of his mind ; and 
mark the effect at once on the Socialist patient. 
She straightway becomes in her sleep most con- 
versant with the Bible; — she compares one text 
with another; — she interprets the Old Testament 
by the New ; — she discovers the deepest meaning in 
most abstruse chapters; she is an expositor of 
what she declares are the real doctrines of the 
Gospel. That a Socialist girl should accomplish 
all this, is regarded as supernatural ; — she is con- 
sidered as inspired, — called a prophetess ; — and at 
present no one can say what turn the delusion may 
take. Now any one who has studied the science, may 
see, at a glance, that this is purely a case of Mes- 
meric sympathy ; the patient is reading the mind 
of the Mesmeriser, and nothing else. There is no 
origination of idea, but a transference of thought 
to one whose intellectual powers are spiritualised 
oy Mesmerism. That this explanation is correct, 
we have curious corroborative testimony. The 
Tirl is placed en rapport, that is, in Mesmeric com- 
lunication, with a gentleman whose studies are 
s 



258 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

altogether of an astrological character; and her 
talk is straightway of the " stars." — She is placed 
en rapport with a lady, who declares that her inner- 
most thoughts are laid bare by the patient ; and 
both these parties know not what to think. 
Great hubbub is raised ; — the neighbourhood is all 
stirred up ; those who have a tendency towards 
religious novelties, look for fresh revelations from 
the magical maid ; those who adhere to the Evan- 
gelical section of the Church, raise a bigoted cry of 
Satanic agency ; while simple nature is forgotten, 
and both sides overlook the fact that the patient 
is sympathetically united with the mind of the 
Mesmerist.* 

What opposite views, then, have these somnam- 
bulist revelations been required to support! In 
Kent, in the sixteenth century, they are brought 
in aid of the Church of Rome. In the seventeenth 
century, they have to do service for the Reformed 
Churches of France and Bohemia. And now in 
the present day, they are called up to strengthen 
the cause of good old John Wesley ; while, if the 
preacher be the Protestant Pope of a fashionable 
w^atering-place, he deems an opposite line more 
expedient, and so adorns his rhetoric with plumage 
borrowed from St. Jude's at Liverpool. 



* Of course, this supposed prophetess not only reads the mind 
of the Mesmeriser, but is farther gifted with that enlargement of 
the spiritual faculties, which is so usual in the Mesmeric state, 
and which gives the additional marvel to the whole transaction. 
It is this exaltation of soul that stamps her " revelations" with 
the semblance of the miraculous. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOXEXTS. 259 

A propos of a fashionable congregation. A 
description has already been given of the effect of 
a Mesmeric wonder upon a superstitious peasantry 
and an ill-educated priesthood ; it is regarded by 
both as a miracle. Let us now imagine how the 
very same marvels would ferment in the mind of 
a popular preacher nearer home ; and see if a 
sketch cannot be suggested, the likeness of which 
might be recognised in many a place by those who 
reside close to the spot. 

Suppose a preacher, — it matters not whether 
of the tractarian or opposite school, — but one 
who loves spiritual power so well that he can 
bear no brother near his throne. Suppose him to 
be a well-informed man, and entertaining decided 
opinions in favour of Mesmerism. Suppose him 
to have admitted this to a friend, and even to 
have stated to another person, that animal mag- 
netism was a profound science, fraught with good 
to man, by no means necessarily connected with 
materialism, though man might pervert the best 
things to his ruin. Suppose him to have uttered 
something like this, — when in the midst of his 
! convictions a few Mesmeric phenomena occur in 
' the vicinity, and ruffle the smoothness of " life's 
' dreary intercourse ; " they, in fact, attract con- 
siderable notice. But a fashionable spa is not 
; ripe for such a novelty. Our preacher's congre- 
gation find it far easier to combine the pomps and 
vanities of this world with sabbatical excitement, 
/ s 2 



260 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

than to see religion and science linked together in 
that happy union, 

*' qualem decet esse sororum.' 1 

Does our imaginary teacher, then, rebuke their 
ignorance? does he set an example of manly 
independence ? Alas ! his pre-eminence is at 
stake. That most intolerable of tyrannies, — 
a tyranny in things spiritual must not be 
hazarded for a moment. He mounts his pulpit ; 
he classes Mesmerism with astrology and witch- 
craft ; he- condemns its practice as a presumptuous 
prying into the secret hidden things of the Cre- 
ator. As Bacon says, he " presumes to check 
the liberality of God's gifts ; " — and he classes its 
healing benefits as one of the lying wonders of the 
latter days. And having thus seasoned his dis- 
course with what Dr. Hooke calls " grandiloquent 
ignorance," he walks forth amidst his friends, 
triumphant and all-powerful, and receiving their 
congratulations at the proud position he retains. 

Compare such a proceeding with the honest but 
mistaken views of a priest in the Tyrol. Yet 
the Roman Catholic is termed an impostor, and a 
fabricator of miracles; the other is upheld and 
admired as a supporter of truth ! 

To return, however, to the question of mental 
and Mesmeric sympathy, there can be little doubt 
that the modern miracles in Egypt, which Lord 
Prudhoe witnessed, and which have so perplexed 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 261 

the learned of this country to explain, have some 
connection with this " transfer of thought," of 
which we have been speaking. Dr. Collyer has 
written an able work on this subject ; he supposes * 
that a vital electricity is the medium of commu- 
nication from mind to mind; that there is an 
" embodiment of thought ; " in other words, an 
impression of the thoughts of one mind, through a 
Mesmeric agent, on the brain or mind of another. 
By this very embodiment of thought the young 
prophetess reads the mind of her Mesmeriser, and 
transfers his Scriptural acquirements into her own 
brain ; and by the same embodiment the Arabian 
boy became acquainted with the likenesses of 
Nelson, of Shakspeare, and of the brother of 
Major Felix, and so perplexed the noble traveller 
and his numerous critics.* 

In short, we are but in the infancy of our Mes- 
meric knowledge. Not only may the oracles of 
old, those for instance of Delphi, be explained by 
the responses of a magnetic somnambulist in the 
highest state of lucidity — not only may many 
startling wonderments in the Church of Rome be 
likened to some in the Wesleyan community, and 
be farther illustrated by the ecstatic condition of 
a Mesmerised patient ; but it may even be sug- 
gested to the philosophic inquirer to pursue the 

* See " Psychography, or the Embodiment of Thought," by 
Dr. Collver. — See also " The People's Phrenological Journal," 
No. XLIV. 

S 3 



262 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

topic into a wider field. It may be possible that 
the sympathy of Mesmeric action may throw a 
light on the hysteric excitement, by which large 
multitudes of men are stirred up into a strange 
contagious enthusiasm. Dr. Bertrand, in his Avell- 
known work, contends strongly for this opinion. 
The prophets of the Cevennes, — the nuns of 
London, the convulsionaires of St. Medard, are 
cited by him as instances of proof. We might 
add to this list the strange sect of the Flagellants 
of Hungary and Bohemia, in the fifteenth century. 
L'Enfant, in the " History of the Council of Con- 
stance," gives a curious account of this heresy; 
and states that this love of self-flagellation became 
a perfect " furor," and so contagious was it, that 
some contemporaries deemed it as " supernatural, 
and the inspiration of Heaven ; " — others "regarded 
it as the suggestion of an evil spirit."* The 
enthusiasm of the quakers at their first establish- 
ment, — of the methodists in their early days, — and 
in our own time the wilclness and madness of the 
"unknown tongues," may all fall under the 
same class. A panic on board a ship, excitement 
in the field of battle, applause in a crowded 
theatre, make some approach to the same cha- 



* This is so exactly a counterpart of what occurs at every 
other strange appearance, that the words should be quoted : — 

" Elle avait un air surnaturel qui faisait juger aux uns que 
c' etait une inspiration du ciel, pendant que les autres la regar- 
doient comme une suggestion du mauvais Esprit." — Histoire du 
Concile de Constance, liv. v. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 263 

racter. And when in these and similar cases we 
add the principle of imitation to the contagious 
influence of Mesmeric power, — we catch a clue that 
unravels much that is mysterious in the conduct 
of man ; we see how intimately we are all united, 
physically as well as morally ; sympathy and the 
force of attraction are called into being where it is 
little suspected, 

" Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound" 

one with another ! 



The task to which I have so anxiously devoted 
myself, is now completed ; and my readers must 
judge with w x hat success. 

I have endeavoured to show that there is in 
Mesmerism the existence of a power which, if 
properly directed and controlled, may be found 
eminently serviceable in increasing the happiness 
of human kind. 

I have endeavoured to prove this position by 
numerous instances confirmed by observation and 
experiment. 

I have respectfully invited the attention of the 
medical world to a philosophic consideration of the 
uses of this power. 

I have shown that the vague charge of Satanic 
action is one which has been renewed at every 
S 4 



264 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

fresh and mysterious discovery, — that it is a charge, 
too, which often proceeds less from the grossest 
ignorance than the interested motives of the in- 
ventor. 

I have endeavoured to prove that our knowledge 
of Mesmerism does, in no degree, affect our belief 
in real miracles, and in the doctrines of Scripture, 
though it may throw light upon many of those 
secrets respecting the relationship of mind and 
matter, which have hitherto appeared miraculous 
or perplexing, according as the priest or philo- 
sopher have respectively regarded them. 

And now nothing remains but to congratulate 
the friends of truth, at the marked and steady 
progress that the great cause is making. The 
adversaries may be numerous and influential, — but 
their number is diminishing daily. The estab- 
lished leaders of the medical profession, who have 
fixed the principles of their practice, and desire no 
disturbance in their views from the detection of a 
fresh and unknown law in nature ; — the accredited 
leaders of the Evangelical clergy, whose unfortu- 
nate love of popularity and power tempts them to 
uphold their otherwise well-deserved eminence by 
fanatical denunciations of the first object that 
perplexes them ; — every weak and nervous woman, 
who deems it one of the privileges of the sex to 
surrender her reasoning faculties into the guidance 
of some favourite and spiritual adviser ; — and, lastly, 
the large portion of the public that hates to think 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 265 

for itself, — that loathes every thing which is new., — 
that calls reformation revolution, — and prefers a 
vapid uniformity of existence, to the animating 
pleasures of knowledge and discovery ; these are 
the opponents of Mesmerism ; and with these any 
controversy is worse than useless. How cheering 
is the opposite side of the picture ! The friends 
of the art are those of whom any cause might be 
proud. Men of science, — men of philosophy, — 
men whose benevolence is as wide and practical as 
their intellects are clear and commanding; these are 
our guides and champions in this glorious field of 
Christian usefulness, and under their banners a 
day of complete success cannot be far distant. 
But they are not merely a few select and leading 
minds that rank among its advocates ; large bodies 
of men are taking up the question. It is a fact 
that a numerous portion of the junior members of 
the medical profession are alive to the truths of 
Mesmerism, and only biding their time till the 
ripened mind of the public gives them a signal for 
its more general adoption. It is a fact that very 
many individuals among the younger portion of 
the clergy, are conscious of the medicinal value of 
the science, and are introducing its practice as one 
of their means of parochial usefulness. Nay, the 
two extremes of the great social pyramid are both 
exerting their energies in the same direction. 
Mechanics' Institutes are taking the subject up ; 
and many of the operatives in the North and in 



266 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

the manufacturing towns have experienced a sense 
of its domestic benefit. But it is among our haute 
noblesse itself that the strongest division of sup- 
porters may perhaps be found. Some of the lead- 
ing members of the aristocracy are practising the 
art for the benefit of their poorer brethren ; and 
very many are giving to the subject a patient and 
anxious investigation. It is indeed one of the 
most favourable signs of the times — in spite of 
the fearful storms that seem to cloud the social 
horizon — this growing disposition on the part of 
all ranks of the community to devote themselves 
most extensively to the useful and to the instruc- 
tive. There is perhaps at this moment no single 
department of science or general literature which 
cannot boast amongst its followers one or two most 
accomplished members from out of the circle of the 
British aristocracy. And Mesmerism is no excep- 
tion to the progressive character of their studies. 
In shorty as Mr. Chenevix said a few years back, 
Mesmerism is established. Nothing but a 
general convulsion of society — a loss of the art of 
printing, and a return to the barbarous condition 
of those of old, can, humanly speaking, roll back 
that current of knowledge on the subject which is 
growing and expanding every year. Soon, very 
soon, will it be an acknowledged — an admitted 
branch of medical practice. And when that day 
shall at length arrive — when the mists of preju- 
dice and bigotry shall be dispersed before the 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 267 

glowing splendours of the Sun of truth, and men 
shall look back in wonder at that hardened incre- 
dulity which checked its onward progress — let it 
never be forgotten who it was that in this country 
first placed the question on its legitimate footing, — 
who it was that first took the practice out of the 
hands of the charlatan, and added its multiplied 
and profound resources to the former stores of the 
healing art, — who it was that, risking the loss of 
friends, the loss of income, the loss of elevated 
standing in his own profession, stepped out man- 
fully and truthfully from the timid crowd, and 
asserted the claims of this great discovery to a 
place within the circle of the medical sciences : 
and when the question is asked who it was that so 
boldly ventured on this untrodden ground, a 
grateful posterity will respond with the name of 
John Elliotson. But it will also be added, that 
he lived to see his calumniated art acknowledged 
and pursued ; that he lived to see the stream of pro- 
fessional success flowing back to him with the 
full tide of popular support ; that he lived to see 
every statement which he had advanced, every 
treatment which he had adopted, established and 
confirmed ; and that as one of the first physicians 
of the age, first in practice, and first in reputation, 
he was classed with the proudest names of that 
honourable band, 

" Qui sui memores fecere merendo." 



APPENDIX, 



An ably written article in the " Critic " for February 
1844, says, — " We have no hesitation in asserting as 
the result of accurate experiment, that there is a state 
of human existence, in which the mind perceives ex- 
ternal objects through some other medium than the 
ivonted media of the senses, and that in this state the 
mind perceives things imperceptible in its natural 
condition." Startling as this position is, — there is no 
escaping from the fact. Long before Mesmer ap- 
peared, or Mesmerism was practised, — have such 
facts been stated on the most unquestionable au- 
thority. What is the manner, by which these effects 
are produced, is another and difficult question, — for 
the solution of which, in the present state of know- 
ledge, — we are little prepared. Whether it be, as 
the writer in the " Critic " suggests, " by a sixth 
sense of which in our ordinary condition of existence 
we are not conscious, and which is developed only 
under certain circumstances ; " — or whether, " by an 
extraordinary quickening of the senses, so that they 
catch sights and sounds invisible and inaudible to us ; " 
— whether, "by the partial severance of the im- 
material mind from its material tenements, and its 
perception of things directly without the intervention 
of those senses through which only it is usually per- 
mitted to hold intercourse with the material world ; " 



270 APPENDIX. 

or whether it be " by a mysterious or unexplained 
sympathy ; " whatever be the hypothesis, — the fact 
is certain, and cannot admit of contradiction. The 
useful point, however, to be borne in mind, is this, — 
that these phenomena have occurred without the 
action of animal magnetism. In a useful little work 
by Mr. Edwin Lee on Clairvoyance *, — which, all 
who are interested on the subject should read, — there 
is a quotation from a German work on practical re- 
ligion, which is corroborative of the opinion. " Never- 
theless, it is not to be denied that we are but learners 
in our investigations into the secrets of nature, and 
that what appears to us to be incomprehensible, is not, 
on that account, to be denied altogether. We now 
know, for instance, that the human soul, which em- 
ploys for its instrument as regards earthly things 
the nervous system more particularly, can also feel 
and perceive beyond the sphere of the nerves. We 
know that in certain conditions of nervous disorder; 
man may possess increased powers, may perceive dis- 
tant things, which are separated from him by an 
interval of many miles. We know that in some states 
of the nervous system, persons can see with firmly 
closed eyes, — can hear with closed ears. We have 
examples of this in somnambulists (natural sleep- 
walkers) — who during the complete sleep of their 
bodies, perform things which in their waking state 
they were unable to accomplish. Thus, herein shows 
itself very clearly an activity of the human soul alto- 
gether independent of its outward senses. But, in 



* " Report on the Phenomena of Clairvoyance," by Edwin 
Lee, Esq. (Churchill, Prince's St., Soho.) 



APPENDIX. 271 

point of fact, it is not the eyes which see, nor the ears 
which hear ; it is the soul which sees, hears, and per- 
ceives by means of the nerves, which are distributed 
over the whole surface of the body, and the powers of 
which are almost redoubled in the apparatus of the 
senses, smell, feeling," &c. 

A few instances of Clairvoyance, occurring spon- 
taneously in a natural state, shall be here adduced in 
confirmation of the above statement. The case of 
Somnambulism, which is reported on the authority of 
the Archbishop of Bordeaux was alluded to in the 
Third Chapter. Here the young ecclesiastic wrote 
and read with his eyes closed, and when an opaque 
body was interposed by the archbishop between them 
and the paper. 

Here is a case of hysteria, with extraordinary acute- 
ness of some of the senses. It was communicated by 
Sir G. S. Mackenzie, Bart, to the Editor of the Edin- 
burgh Phrenological Journal : — 

" Dear Sir, 

" The following copy of a letter from a clergyman 
was sent to me nearly six years ago, at a time when 
Mesmerism had not attracted my notice. The case 
referred to in it was evidently one of natural sleep- 
walking ; and it is to be regretted that so little of it is 
known, as it appears to have been one of great interest. 
Now that the subject is better and more generally 
understood, we may hope that such cases when they 
occur, will not be concealed. 

" Yours faithfully, 

" 24th October, 1343 Gr. S. MACKENZIE." 



272 APPENDIX. 

" < 24th January, 1838. 

" < Dear Sir, 

" ' It is perfectly true that our poor friend, who 
has now been some months with us, presents one of 
those singular and almost incredible cases of hysterical 
or nervous affection which are at distant intervals 
witnessed under the dispensation of the Almighty. 

" ' The overthrow of the regular functions of the 
nervous system was occasioned by the almost sudden 
death of her father, to whom she was most fondly 
attached, who was seized with illness during her 
absence from him, and died a few hours after she 
returned to her home. I cannot enter into any longer 
details of the case, which has been attended with all 
those varieties which have long characterised the 
complaint, among medical men, as the Protean dis- 
order. The extraordinary powers communicated to 
the other senses by the temporary suspension of one or 
two of them, are beyond credibility to all those who 
do not witness it ; and I really seldom enter into any 
of the details, because it would be but reasonable that 
those who have not seen should doubt the reality of 
them. All colours she can distinguish with the 
greatest correctness by night or day, whether pre- 
sented to her on cloth, silk, muslin, wax, or even 
glass — and this, I may safely say, as easily on any 
part of the body as with the hands, although, of course, 
the ordinary routine of such an exhibition of power 
takes place with the hands, the other being that of 
mere curiosity. Her delicacy of mind and high tone 
of religious feeling are such, that she has the greatest 
objection to make that which she regards in the light 



APPENDIX. 273 

of a heavy affliction from God, a matter of show or curi- 
osity to others, although to ourselves, of course, all these 
unusual extravagances of nervous sensibility are mani- 
fest for at least twelve out of every twenty-four hours. 
She can not only read with the greatest rapidity any 
writing or print that is legible to us, music, &c, with 
the mere passage of her fingers over it, whether in a 
dark or light room (for her sight is for the most part 
suspended when under the influence of the attack or 
paroxysm, although she is perfectly sensible, nay, 
more acute and clever than in her natural state) ; but, 
within this month past, she has been able to collect 
the contents of any printing or MS. by merely laying 
her hand on the page, without tracing the lines or 
letters ; and I saw her, last night only, declare the 
contents of a note just brought into the room, in this 
way (when I could not decipher it myself without a 
candle), and with a rapidity with which I could not 
have read it by daylight. I have seen her develop 
hand-writing by the application of a note to the back 
of her hand, neck, or foot ; and she can do it at any 
time. There is nothing ^mnatural in this ; for, of 
course, the nervous susceptibility extends all over the 
surface of the body, but use and habit cause us to limit 
its power more to the fingers. Many, even medical, 
men take upon themselves to declare that ice are all 
(her medical attendants as well) under a mere delu- 
sion. We ask none to believe any thing if they prefer 
not to do so, and only reply — The case is equally 
marvellous either way; either that this our poor 
patient should be thus afflicted, or that eighteen, or 
nineteen persons of my family and friends, in the daily 
habit of seeing her, should fancy she is, for every 
T 



274 APPENDIX. 

twelve hours out of twenty-four, doing, at intervals, 
that which she is not doing. There are many exhi- 
bitions of extravagant powers which she possesses, 
that we talk of to no one ; for, finding it difficult to 
acquire credit for lesser things, we do not venture on 
the greater. Her power ceases the moment the attack 
passes off, A considerable swelling has at times been 
visible at the back of the head, which has yielded to 
the treatment. 

" 'It is certainly a case which would be an instructive 
one in the consideration of the physiology of the 
human frame ; but she, poor thing ! is most averse to 
experiments being purposely made on her : but in her 
every -day life among us, we have no lack of proof for 
all we believe and know. 

" ' Between the attacks she is as perfectly in a natural 
.state as ever she was in her life. There is but one 
paradox in her state, and that is, that she can at such 
times hear some sounds and not others, though very 
much louder, — and see some things and not others, 
though placed before her. She could hear a tune 
whistled, when she would not hear a gun fired close to 
her. It is certainly the absorption or absence of mind 
that occasions this : absent to some things, though 
present to others, like any absent man ; and thus Dr. 
Y accounts for it. 

" 6 In making this communication to you, in part to 
vindicate the testimony of my friend Mr. M— — , I 
have really exceeded my usual custom and resolution ; 
for I do not think it fair to the poor sufferer herself to 
make her too much the talk of others. Yery few 
believe what we tell them, and, therefore, we are in 
no degree anxious to open our lips on the subject. 



APPENDIX. 275 

All I know is, that I should not have believed it 
myself, had I been only told of it. I must beg, there- 
fore, that you will not make any undue use of this 
communication, by handing my letter about to any 
one. The friend for whom you ask the information is 
perfectly welcome to read it, or I should not have 
written it. If the case were my own, the world should 
be welcome to it ; but a young female of much sensi- 
bility might be much embarrassed, by finding the 
world at large in possession of all particulars on her 
recovery, should God so please to permit. 

"'I am, &c."' 



Mr. Coiquhoun, in the " Isis Revelata," has collected 
several similar cases. 

One is the case of a boy, named Divaud, residing at 
Vevey. The Philosophical Society of Lausanne ex- 
amined into this case, and reported the facts. The 
committee testify, that the boy read, when his eyes 
were perfectly shut ; — that he wrote accurately ; 
" though we put a thick piece of paper before his eyes, 
he continued to form each character with the same 
distinctness as before." " He has told the title of a 
book, when there was a thick plank placed between it 
and his eyes." Many other singular circumstances 
are narrated of this natural somnambulist. 

Another instance of clairvoyance, is that of a student, 
who, during a severe nervous complaint, experienced 
several attacks of somnambulism. Professor Feder of 
Gottingen is the authority for this case. Several 
facts are given, from which it is evident that this 
T 2 



276 APPENDIX. 

somnambulist saw distinctly without the use of his 
eyes. 

The "Transactions of the Medical Society of Breslau" 
mention the case of a ropemaker, who was frequently 
overtaken by sleep, — whose eyes were then firmly 
closed, and in this state he would continue his work 
with as great case as when awake. But this som- 
nambulist " could not see when his eyes were forced 
ope?i" 

Dr. Knoll gives the example of a gardener, who be- 
came a somnambulist, and in that state performed a 
variety of occupations, requiring light and the use of 
the eyes, with which he dispensed. Among other 
things, he put the thread through the eye of a needle, 
and sewed his clothes. 

Lord Monboddo has recorded a curious case of som- 
nambulism, in which a girl in his neighbourhood per- 
formed a variety of acts with her eyes shut. 

Dr. Schultz of Hamburgh mentions a patient, who 
wrote, and distinguished colours, and recognised the 
numbers of cards, and cut figures in paper, with her 
eyes fast closed. " In order to be certain, that upon 
these occasions she made no use of her eyes, they were 
bandaged upon the approach of the convulsions which 
preceded the somnambulism." 

Moritz's "Psychological Magazine" gives an account 
of a boy, who frequently fell asleep suddenly; and 
although his eyes were completely closed, was able to 
see and discriminate all objects presented to him. 

Dr. Abercrombie in his " Intellectual Powers," and 
Dr. Dyce of Aberdeen, in the " Edinburgh Philoso- 
phical Transactions," have described cases of a very 



APPENDIX. 277 

similar character ; but they have been so often 
quoted, and are so familiar to the reader, that further 
reference is unnecessary. 

Those who are anxious to pursue the subject, should 
consult the " Isis Kevelata," in which these cases are 
more fully detailed. 

Many other instances might be adduced, all illustra- 
tive of this often-repeated statement, that Mesmeric 
phenomena are nothing else than what nature of her 
own accord has produced in the cases of the common 
somnambulist. 

Let but the reader bear this fact in mind, and surely 
his incredulity as to the wonders of Mesmerism might 
receive considerable abatement. 

The additional point is, that when this somnambu- 
listic condition is artificially obtained, a sympathetic 
and curative influence is often induced, conducting 
the philosopher to a fresh region of physiological in- 
quiry. 

In short, man does not live for himself alone. Man 
must be reared by man ; must be taught by man ; 
must be comforted and healed by man. We are all 
necessary the one to the other ; we are all formed 
from the same clay, and are hastening to the same end; 
— and while our sojourn continues on this earth, are all 
intimately identified with each other's happiness. As 
that wild, but powerful writer Thomas Carlyle, — in 
one of the wildest and most powerful of his writings, 
— " The French Revolution," — speaking on the very 
subject of this work, says : "And so under the strangest 
new vesture, the old great truth begins again to be 
revealed, — that man is what we call a miraculous 



278 APPENDIX. 

creature, with miraculous power over men ; and on the 
whole, with such a life in him, and such a world round 
him, as victorious Analysis, with her physiologies, ner- 
vous systems, physic and metaphysic, will never com- 
pletely name; to say nothing of explaining^ 



THE END. 






347 7 



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